Dr. Damani Phillips is a native of Pontiac, MI, where he began playing at the age of 10.  He currently serves as Professor of Jazz Studies, African American Studies and head of the Jazz Studies area at the University of Iowa, where he teaches applied jazz saxophone, directs large/small jazz ensembles and teaches courses in African-American music, African-American culture, jazz education and improvisation. He has earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in classical saxophone from DePaul University and The University of Kentucky and a second Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from Wayne State University (Detroit). Damani completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2009, becoming the first African American in the country to do so. He was named a Yamaha performing artist in 2014.

An active performer, pedagogue and composer, Damani has shared the stage with artists/groups such as Lewis Nash, Christian McBride, Wycliffe Gordon, Bobby McFerrin, Marcus Belgrave, Terrell Stafford, Maceo Parker, Pat Bianchi, Bobby Floyd, The Temptations, Red Holloway, Hank Jones and many others. He has released six albums as a leader: Yaktown Nights (2003), The String Theory (2010) and The Reckoning (featuring New York standouts Pat Bianchi, Greg Gisbert and Lewis Nash) in 2012, Duality (2015) and his first live recording Live in Iowa in 2018. His most recent album No More Apologies, featuring jazz quartet with string octet, was released in November of 2021.

Damani is also an active academic scholar, with scholarly presentations at colleges, universities, professional/civic conferences, and scholarly forums both domestically and abroad to his credit. His scholarly research focuses on addressing cultural concerns in the pedagogy of Black music within academia. He published his first book titled “What is This Thing Called Soul: Conversations on Jazz and Black Culture” in 2017, which delves into the difficult, yet timely, topic of the decline of Black cultural influence and representation in jazz as traditionally taught in academic spheres.