About Philip Booth

Longtime arts journalist and bassist Philip Booth has been playing and writing about music since the era when lime-green leisure suits weren't yet considered abominations. The Florida native, pop music critic for the Tampa Tribune from 1988 to 1996, contributes coverage of jazz, rock, Americana, blues, world music and other genres to Billboard, Down Beat, Jazziz, Bass Player, Relix, the St. Petersburg Times and Las Vegas City Life, and his byline additionally has appeared in many other publications.

Booth produced and played on a 1996 Thelonious Monk tribute disc, "Monk in the Sun," featuring Nat Adderley, Jeff Berlin, and Kenny Drew, Jr., and his now-defunct jamband Ghetto Love Sugar played major festivals and venues around Florida. But he counts a one-off teenage gig with Bo Diddley, during his college years at the University of Florida, as his true brush with fame. When not writing or playing upright and electric bass with Trio Vibe and other groups, Booth watches movies, pursues fiction writing, and spends time with his wife Callie and their two children.