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Jazz Legend Phil Woods Passes Away at 83

DELAWARE WATER GAP — The music world is mourning the loss of one of jazz’s great legends, Phil Woods, who passed away Tuesday. At the Deer Head Inn,...
phil woods

DELAWARE WATER GAP -- The music world is mourning the loss of one of jazz's great legends, Phil Woods, who passed away Tuesday.

At the Deer Head Inn, if there's one thing they know, it's jazz. Touting itself as the longest continuously running jazz club in the country, the place in Delaware Water Gap has hosted some of jazz's legendary greats, including jazz master Phil Woods, who just passed away at the age of 83.

“Last night would have been a month since we played with him here. He played with us a month ago. He was with the big band, so it's very hard,” said piano player Skip Wilkins.

Woods, who grew to international fame, lived in Delaware Water Gap since the 1970s, playing numerous times at the Deer Head Inn.

Dennis Carrig, one of the inn's owners, says Woods not only left an impression on the music world but also on the worlds of the people he knew.

“I'll miss just because he was a good guy and he was, his music was beautiful, I loved his arrangements,” said Carrig.

“Phil had, and that others of his period had, is that sense that he commanded you to not just get ready but simply to be ready. When you're on the bandstand with Phil you had to be ready and that's the way you played music,” said Wilkins.

Woods was even one of the founding fathers of the annual Delaware Water Gap Jazz Festival, which just celebrated its 39th year.

Newswatch 16 spoke with Woods at the festival in 1995, where his love of jazz was clear.

“If an Eskimo can play the blues, I can sit down in his igloo and we can have a heck of party and not know what each other is talking about,” said Woods.

The Deer Head Inn is hosting a musical tribute to Phil Woods this Friday night at 7 p.m.

Woods was 83 years old.

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