Keyboardist Phillip Bennett is an exciting and entertaining performer and player who blends a mixture of music styles and professional talent. His extensive knowledge of MIDI, sampling, computers and synthesis allows him to create from a huge palate of sound technology, while his musical experience and wide versatility allow him to shine as both a performer and a musician.
Since 1995, he has been performing and arranging all keyboards with Starship (formally Jefferson Starship). Starship, featuring the incomparable singer Mickey Thomas, Starship performs over one hundred shows a year nationally and internationally. Starship is a group well known for their keyboard and synthesizer arrangements.
Coming from a large Musical family, Phil was raised with a love for all types of music and started playing multiple instruments at an early age, with an intense desire to emulate and absorb the many different artists and styles that he was surrounded by in the San Francisco Bay Area. He focused on the piano after discovering its continued availability next to a record player/radio in the living room, and as a result, discovered jazz and classical music recordings, Jimi Hendrix and National Public Radio.
As a teenager with a fake I.D., he performed in around the San Francisco Bay Area where he was able to gain extensive experience working with established bands and players, and as a result In his early 20s, he joined up and collaborated with the late Bay Area guitarist Erik Torjesen. Erik was well known for his instrumental rock-jazz guitar sound that was made quite popular in the early 1990s. Phillip gained the attention of renowned Testament guitarist and Guitar Player columnist Alex Skolnick, who for three years he recorded and toured with. It was an additional extraordinary experience that enhanced Phils playing style by allowing him to incorporate the chops and musicality needed for Instrumental and progressive music.
Phil's technical expertise allows him to comfortably perform on all the various types of keyboard instruments, from his arsenal of modern electronica to his collection of vintage electric pianos and Hammond organs. His technical expertise with MIDI and Computers allows him to bridge the cap between both platforms and to utilize digital recording, software and hardware as an integral part of his studio and playing.
His passion and love for music and his joy for the art of performance have been a key element in his playing. Phil's extensive touring experience also makes him realize that being a musician encompasses more than just the music.
Aside from Starship, Phil's experience includes acting as the sole keyboardist with the concert series Super Singers of Rock and Voices of Classic Rock. Among many others, he has performed and toured with the following:
Bobby Kimball singer of Toto
Brad Gillis of Night Ranger
Chuck Negron, singer of Three Dog Night
Dave Jenkins, singer of Pablo Cruise
Eddie Money
Fee Waybill, singer of The Tubes
Gary U.S. Bonds
Jimi Jamison, singer of Survivor
Joe Lynn Turner of Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen
John Cafferty, Beaver Brown band
Jeff Campitelli, drummer for Joe Satriani
Jimmy Hall of Wet Willie
Jeff skunk Baxter
Michael Manring, Windham Hill recording artist
Leslie West of Mountain
Ben Orr The Cars
Chris Kirkpatrick singer of NSYNC
Orleans Peter Rivera, singer of Rare Earth
Southside Johnny
Spencer Davis
Enchant
Cliff Williams, AC/DC
Steve Walsh of Kansas
Pat Travers
Justin McRoberts
Reese Roper Five Iron Frenzy
Frankie Banali Quiet Riot
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