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Phil Upchurch

 


Jazz and blues bassist and guitarist Philip Rodney Upchurch was born in Chicago, Illinois on 19 July 1941. After working with The Kool Gents, The Dells, The Spaniels, Jack McDuff, Curtis Mayfield, Otis Rush and Jimmy Reed, Woody Herman, Stan Getz, Groove Holmes, B.B. King, and Dizzy Gillespie you can only write that he is a highly regarded jazz, soul and blues musician, and the tune he is mainly associated with, “You can’t sit down”, was a million seller. He was house guitarist at the Chess studios in Chicago for much of the 1960s. In the 1970s he worked with Donny Hathaway, Ramsey Lewis, Rotary Connection, Quincy Jones and others. His career continued in the 1980s, working with George Benson, Natalie Cole, Chaka Khan and others.

Phil Upchurch died on 23 November 2025 in Los Angeles, California, age 84.


Image: Jazz Music Archives

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