Mike Phillips, aka "A Jazzer with Swagger" (his words, not mine), is not only one of the premiere saxophonists of his generation, but he is famous for mashing up Jazz with Hip Hop and making it accessible to a new audience as one of the musicians behind the Hidden Beach Unwrapped series. He's taken urban radio hits such as "Ay Bay Bay" and "Shawty" and made them semi-bearable with his sax stylings. So it was only natural for Mike Philly to try his hand at Jamie Foxx's "Blame It On the Alcohol" at a recent concert. He put his saxophone aside and picked up his EWI with a talk box attached, which digitizes his voice live as he sings into the instrument. What I appreciate about this Mike Philly performance is that he showed love to Roger Troutman, the man who first made this sound popular back in the '80s, with one of his pop-up captions the video. In the same caption he even took a swipe at T-Pain, challenging him to "get from behind the studio computer and do it LIVE!" Ha! That'll be the day.
