Simon Phillips releases Protocol 6, extends his fusion legacy

Simon Phillips’ new release, Protocol 6, landed on June 5 through Phantom Recordings and immediately read like a statement of intent from one of fusion’s most durable names. The album runs seven tracks and about 52 minutes and 23 seconds, with Phillips fronting a core lineup of Ernest Tibbs on bass, Otmaro Ruiz on keyboards, Alex Sill on guitar and Phillip Whack on saxophone. For drummers, the draw is not just the pedigree but the way Phillips continues to make precision, authority and composition feel inseparable.

That matters because Protocol is not a side note in Phillips’ catalog. His official site traces the series back to the first Protocol record, recorded in May 1988 and released in 1989 as a five-track instrumental mini-album. More than three decades later, Protocol 6 extends that line with the same drummer-composer focus, but with a band identity that now feels fully established rather than assembled around a leader’s solo project.

Phillips said the new material was written specifically for the current players, and that shows in the track design. In a promotional interview, he described the opener, Andromeda, as moving from a “slow 7,” really 14/8, and then into 13. That kind of metric shift is exactly where Phillips has long separated himself from mere clinic-level flash: the groove is exacting, but the phrasing and structure keep the music moving forward. The track list, which also includes Unstable Grounds, Intrepid Traveller, As the River Flows, Code 4 Kryptos, Event Horizon and Sundown in Old Town, suggests a set built to balance motion, color and ensemble interplay.

The release also lands with the weight of Phillips’ wider résumé behind it. Venue promotion ties him to Toto, The Who, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola, Hiromi and Stanley Clarke, while another listing calls him Grammy-nominated for Protocol 4 and cites Modern Drummer’s recognition of him as the world’s number one fusion drummer. Some release metadata also points to U.S. CD and Japanese SHM-CD editions through Universal Music, underlining the international reach of a project that still treats the drummer as the central creative force. Protocol 6 does exactly what a Simon Phillips release should do: it turns elite time feel, sharp arrangement sense and fusion muscle into a living part of the legacy.