About Us
For booking, Call: ​(516) 320-3026
Email: joannejbirdphillips@gmail.com 

Joanne J-Bird Phillips

Multi-instrumentalist Joanne J-Bird Phillips, a native of The Bronx in New York, grew up in a family of professional drummers and band leaders on Long Island NY. Before she could walk, her family noticed that she always bopped up and down in perfect timing when hearing music. At the tender age of seven, Joanne's dad put a pair of brushes in her hands, sat her down at a drum kit and taught her how to play to Sinatra. Her passion for music was quite evident and at the age of fourteen, her father bought her a full drum set of her own. Joanne gravitated towards playing several music genres on the drums through her teen years......Rock'n'Roll, Bossa Nova and of course, Swing. She first "played out" at the age of sixteen as the drummer in a local rock band, performing several times at a nearby restaurant for neighbors' private "sweet sixteen" parties. Being the only teen in the neighborhood who could play drums to "Wipeout", a popular tune of the day, she was immediately accepted into the new music ensemble of teenage boys. The name of the band? "We Three & She"! Joanne was also a student of the accordion for most of her teen years, taking private lessons, and became quite adept at the instrument. She took off the accordion and put down the drum sticks when she entered college, but if not playing music, she was always listening to it or around audio equipment as the only woman bench technician at Harman/Kardon. Her mantra? "Music is like the air that I breathe. I can't live without it".

Fast forward to her early thirties, Joanne desperately longed to pound out the beats or swish the brushes, but having a drum set in a small house while raising young children didn't seem very practical at the time. One day, she heard Madonna's tune "Holiday" on the radio. Being a percussive person who was also attracted to the bottom feel of music, she heard the bass line in the song and was hooked. She was able to get a "starter bass"......took some lessons.......sat in at local jams......and down the road she was asked to join a long-established Classic Rock band in 1992 (Turnpike Joe & The Traffic Jam, rockin' NY since 1977)....and "J-Bird" was born! While performing on bass at a "musicians only" private party, a musician colleague shouted out "Go J-Bird, GO!" Being so enamored by the compliment, J-Bird was eventually made her legal name. Along the way over the coming years, Joanne found herself leaning towards playing hand percussion and also took lessons on conga with Nydia "Liberty" Mata, percussionist for Laura Nyro, Art Blakey and Pete Seeger. J-Bird was often hired to write arrangements and perform on hand percussion with various music groups including Retro69, a New York-based ensemble that presents re-creations of the songs of Woodstock 1969, as well as be hired for studio session work in NYC. She was given the moniker "The Human Metronome" by fellow New York musicians, because of her impeccable "feel and timing". In 2011, Joanne was invited to join New York's Stephen Scouten Jazz Trio on drums, where she came full circle on the instrument, performing to mostly Swing and Bossa Nova tunes. In 2015, Joanne teamed up with longtime Long Island NY musician/singer Nina K. Gordon. Both musicians, having metal hip replacements, formed The Bionic Babes with Joanne on lite drums/percussion and Nina on vocals and guitar. 

In 2005, Joanne was in an auto accident where, just by coincidence, a brain tumor was discovered in her head. Seeing this as a "blessing in disguise" after three years of various successful surgeries (brain, knee, hip), Joanne realized she had a second chance to live. In 2012, she founded J-Bird Music for The Arts, Inc., a 501(c)3 nonprofit that supports performing arts and music in New York education, providing resources and much needed music instruments to schools and music programs throughout the state. Also in 2012, Joanne produced Long Beach ROXX NY, the only rock'n'roll music festival held in a library venue in all of New York State. 2020 saw the 9th annual event, re-imagined in a live stream platform during the Covid-19 pandemic, supporting New York Indie musicians, exclusively. Both Pearl Drums and Fender Guitars have used photos of Joanne for online promotion of their brands.

In mid-2021, Joanne found herself  in a private, local Jazz Standards jam, where she was asked to play drums while the group's regular drummer was away for the summer. But lo and behold! Also in the group was David Feldman on keys and vocals! Joanne and Dave knew each other in previous years as she hired him as a fabulous graphic artist to make all of her custom J-Bird and event logos. Dave was also Co-producer of STRONG BEACH® Chef, Joanne's Video On Demand show about celebrity chefs. By the end of the first jam with Dave, Joanne knew she found the music partner she was looking for, to start a new duo that finds her back on her first instrument, performing the first music she ever played.....Jazz Standards......with brushes.

When not living and breathing music, Joanne is a New York State award winning Arts Advocate (ARTY Award 2019) who supports and officially mentors young people in the creative arts. Joanne J-Bird Phillips, a HARTKE endorsed rock bass musician, is a member of Local 802 New York/American Federation of Musicians and was featured (with name on the cover, too!) in Bass Musician Magazine (Feb. 2011). You'll find her as Associate Producer of horror film KNOCK KNOCK (Lionsgate 2007), Associate Producer of Broadway-bound musical DANGEROUS (Neal Rubinstein, Lead Producer), Advisory Board Member of the Long Beach International Film Festival, NY (2015-2017), Journalist/Video Interviewer with the US Press Association and New York Sportscene, Member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences/New York Emmy® Awards, Featured in Long Island Woman Magazine (2016), Honored by the New York State Senate for her work in the Arts and community (2016) and proclaimed as New York's "Extraordinary Woman of Nassau County" (2015). Want to know more? Just Google Joanne J-Bird Phillips or find Joanne on social media here: 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jbirdphillips/
IG: @jbirdphillips 

David E. Feldman

​David's original music spans genres.

He is honored to partner with his friend, the great J-Bird Phillips as J-Bird and Dave!

He plays and loves several styles of music: jazz, honky tonk, and the Sinatra-era American Songbook, Classic Rock of the 1960s-70s, 80s, blues and some more recent pop music.

He is also a singer/songwriter influenced by 60s-70s rock, the Great American Songbook, and his Jewish American roots.

Influences include: Fats Waller, Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Chick Corea, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and many others.

​He grew up playing the baby grand piano in his parents' home and singing as a featured soloist in religious school. His father, Lawrence L. Feldman, was a classically trained woodwind (sax, clarinet and flute) player and sought after as a teacher. He was also an outstanding jazz musician. His aunts Molly, Bea and Kate were also outstanding musicians.

As a teenager in the 70s, he played piano and guitar and sang a bit with local rock bands and attended a creative arts camp where he met and jammed with many award-winning fine musicians and singers.

In the late 70s, he began playing blues and jazz flute with friends, as part of duos and in blues groups in New Jersey.

In recent years, he studied piano with master teacher and Ph.d. Mark Polishook, and studied voice with several teachers.

A sampling of  gigs includes: the Tilles Centre Atrium; Union Steak and Sushi - Southampton (most of the 2020 summer); Davinci’s Restaurant in Island Park, an art show at St. John’s Church in Southampton, a charity event at LB Social in Long Beach, The Allegria Hotel; Westbury Space;  the Long Beach VFW Hall, the Long Beach Historical Society (with the Not Just Ragtime Jazz Band), many senior facilities and many many private parties.