Greg Phillinganes
Greg Phillinganes ( born May 12, 1956 in Detroit, Michigan), residing in Los Angeles, is an American session keyboard player and was from 2005 until its dissolution member of the Californian rock band Toto.
Career
Phillinganes was discovered in 1976 by Stevie Wonder and committed to his " Wonder Love Band ". There Phillinganes played from 1976 to 1981 at this time. Besides, he worked with Quincy Jones for Billy Eckstine together. In 1981 he published then his solo debut album "Significant Gains ". With the song "I do not want to be the one" he had one in the Soul scene very acclaimed hit. Much attention in the music scene brought him his participation on Donald Fagens a solo debut " The Nightfly ".
Following this, his collaboration with Michael Jackson began his album "Thriller" (published 1982). For this album, Jackson also wrote additional text for the song " Behind The Mask " by Yellow Magic Orchestra, but was not released on the album. Phillinganes took this song for his second solo album "Pulse" (1984). The song was created in 1987 for Eric Clapton a top 20 hit in the UK. In the aftermath Phillinganes has worked with Michael Jackson together for many of his following albums. Phillinganes also worked for many other stars as a songwriter, keyboardist, or on tour, for example, Lionel Richie, Paul McCartney, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, the Pointer Sisters, Babyface, Christina Aguilera, Richard Marx or Mick Jagger. Even with the cooperation of movie soundtracks, he was very active.
In 2004, Greg Phillinganes took Toto keyboardist David Paich, who was absent due to a serious case of illness in the family, during a tour. From 2005 until its closure in May 2008, he was then an integral part of the band. The album Falling In Between, released in the spring of 2006, Phillinganes has been made as a new member of the band. On the tour, the album he played with for all concerts, either jointly with Paich or, outside the United States, the only keyboard player.
For the 49th Grammy Awards in 2007, he worked as arranger of the song " Good Morning Heartache " ( sung by Chris Botti & Jill Scott) in the category "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist (s)" nominated ( Best Arrangement with vocals).