The descendent of a sheep-thief and a woman who baked her enemies into pies, Mark Phillips is the luckiest jazz immigrant in history. Upon deciding to move Up Over (what Australians call the U.S.) to pursue great music and fewer deadlier creatures, Phillips was told that in fact he had been born in the U.S., and already was, therefore, a U.S. citizen. He is a distinguished Selmer Artist, and certainly the best cartoon clarinetist to ever come from New South Wales.