Ms. Phillips' career has covered almost every area of the music business. In addition to recording several solo albums, she has worked as a singer, choral arranger and conductor with many of the music world's leading artists and is widely known in the industry as the writer/arranger/producer of many national commercials.

Her Christmas show, "Bending Towards the Light, A Jazz Nativity," which has starred such jazz greats as Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton and Tito Puente, has played annually in New York and other cities for over twenty years.

To introduce today's children to the Great American Songbook, Anne and her husband, tenor saxophonist Bob Kindred, created the Children's Jazz Choirs for inner-city children through their not-for-profit organization, Kindred Spirits. In keeping with her passion for keeping those songs alive she also leads "SING! SING! SING!" a GAS Sing-in monthly at The Triad on 72nd Street in NYC.

Ms. Phillips has been on the faculty of the Jazz Department at New York University, Music Director for the 9AM service at St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church and was a National Trustee of NARAS, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

For more information, visit Anne's wonderful website at www.annephillips.com

Check out Anne's Play with Baker's:
THE GREAT GRAY GHOST OF OLD SPOOK LANE

Q&A with Anne Phillips:

Q. THE GREAT GREY GHOST OF OLD SPOOK LANE is a wonderful musical that's part ghost story, part lesson about fitting in. What was your inspiration behind the musical? What piece of advice would you give to students starting at a new school?

I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, Wyomissing, just outside of Reading. One year there was a polio epidemic, before the Salk vaccine. My parents decided to keep my sister and me out of crowded places for two weeks. That included the circus, the Reading Fair AND school! I was in fifth grade. When I started back I learned that there was a new girl in our class. People didn't move around then as much as they do today so a new kid was a little unusual. Nobody had really befriended her. She seemed so lonely and lost and tried so hard to be part of "the gang." I never forgot that. My advice to anyone going into a new situation is just be yourself. The people you want to be friends with will find YOU.

Q. Your career has spanned practically every area of the music business. How has all of your experiences as a singer, choral arranger, jingle writer, commercial producer, teacher and more influenced you as you write for theatre? Can you speak specifically about how your past experiences affected you as you wrote THE GREAT GREY GHOST OF OLD SPOOK LANE?

As a singer I have always been aware of the lyrics of a song, the story. Songs, to me, are like little playlets. When I teach I have my students talk the song. When they do that, even one time through, the difference when they sing the song is astounding! So writing for theater was just an expansion of writing or singing a lyric.

I have always loved radio. I listened to the soaps, to The Shadow, Inner Sanctum, Superman, Grand Central Station (crossroad of a million private lives, probably why I had to come to New York! ) And of course, Fibber MaGee and Molly. I saw a movie short about the making of radio shows. There was the sound effects man making all the rattles and crashes when Fibber opened the closet door! (their closet is on YouTube). I was sort of sorry to see it. It took some of the magic away. But, that's probably why the GREAT GREY GHOST became a retired sound effects man!

Funny, when my children were small there was a station that played old radio shows. One night, after hearing a very scary one, my youngest, Alec, woke up screaming. "Mommy! Its much scarier when you see it in your head!" Out of the mouths of babes! And can you imagine the kick when I was doing the music for a cookie commercial and the voice over was Jackson Beck, the announcer who did the Superman show? Yes, he did it right there for us "Look! Up in the air! Its a bird! Its a plane! Its SUPERMAN!"

Q. In your musical THE GREAT GREY GHOST OF OLD SPOOK LANE, we find out that our ghostly friend had a history in the radio world. You yourself have worked for many recording studios as a jingle writer, backup singer and arranger (among other things!). We know this is a tricky question, but can you share with us one of your favorite stories from that time in your life?

I am so fortunate to have come to New York when recording was all live. There were "record dates" in studios all over town every day, recording sessions with twenty to thirty of the best musicians in the world, back-up singers, a wonderful arranger/conductor and stars like Mahalia Jackson, Bobby Vinton, Lesley Gore, all making music together! There was so much respect, camaraderie and friendship.

My favorite story is from a date with Sammy Davis Jr. Claus Ogerman was the arranger and I was leading the vocal group. Sammy and the vocal group were in adjoining booths. Just as Claus was giving the count-off, Sammy leaned into our booth, took my arm and, pointing to my freckles, said "You see all those little brown spots? You ever realize that if they all got together YOU"D BE COLORED?" Poor Claus heard no downbeat on his headphones, just our screams of laughter!"

I did many demos for writers like Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and all the new young writers like Neil Diamond and Tony Orlando. I got a call for a Carole King session. This was long before "Tapestry" and though she sang on many of her demos she was not trying to be a "recording artist." She was singing the solo on this one, however, and she had even written string parts. She was seven months pregnant and I was eight! The session was called for 7 to 10. It went far longer! At three in the morning my husband picked me up and labor pains began! So we headed straight for the hospital. Fortunately by nine they had stopped, false labor. But my son, Alec again, starts his bio off "It was a dark and rainy night on a Carole King session ...." You can hear "It Might as Well Rain Until September" on my website. I wrote and sang all the back-up.

Q. Have you ever' come across a production that made you see one of your plays in a new or unexpected way?

Five years ago we were asked to perform The Jazz Nativity at the famed jazz club Birdland. We had always done the show in theaters, concert halls and churches with plenty of room for a full production including a 40 voice choir. With the help of our directors, Tad and Beth Jones, we scaled the production down with the singers in the vocal group playing the different roles of Shepherds, Guardian Angels and Joseph and Mary. The Three Kings are still great jazz musicians and a tap dancer who present the gift of their talent. It became a charming, more intimate show and I was surprised to find that I loved it even more!

THE GREAT GREY GHOST OF OLD SPOOK LANE was performed in Ketchikan, Alaska where I do an annual Jazz/Cabaret workshop. The director asked if it would be OK for the "Ghost" to be a girl. She became the sister of the old man. She had inherited the house and his sound effects equipment was still in the cellar. They also had the children make the props, the dishes for the "Ghostly Repast.", Evil Eye Soup, Phantom Pie, I had never thought of that. It was wonderful!

Q. What are you currently working on?

Right now I am casting and preparing for this year' s production of The Jazz Nativity. The New York production will be at BB King's on December 22nd. I am also acting as consultant for the first production of The Jazz Nativity in Colorado Springs on December 3rd and 4th.

We are planning backers auditions for my musical, "Damn Everything But The Circus," a six character musical with book by Emmy Award winner, Stephanie Braxton. This show deals with the other end of the life spectrum, all the characters are over 50.

Four of my songs, recorded by soprano, Monica Harte, have just been released on MSR Records. This includes one from my "Alaskan Trilogy," solo and choral settings of poems by Alaskan poet, Phoebe Newman.

And I have written a ten minute opera with libretto by Marilynn Scott Murphy for "Opera Shorts" which will be at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall on November 4th. This is our second participation in that concert. It is thrilling to hear great classical singers sing my work!

I am so happy to have "THE GREAT GREY GHOST OF OLD SPOOK LANE" published by Baker's Plays because there is one song it in that may be the best song I've ever written, "To Make Them Like Me." Though I wrote it for a child to sing, once when I performed it myself someone in the audience asked me to "Please play the cocktail party song again." That's when I realized that song was for any age. And when I played it for my friend, lyricist Hal David, he said "THAT is a universal, Anne!"