Mark Murphy (musician)

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Mark Murphy (1980)

Mark Howe Murphy (born March 14, 1932 in Syracuse , New York , † October 22, 2015 in Englewood , New Jersey ) was an American jazz singer . According to Reclam's jazz dictionary , he was one of the most popular jazz singers ever. He was considered the " Woody Herman of the vocalists", too fascinated by interesting currents to limit himself to a single, in-house sound.

Live and act

Mark Murphy was born in upstate New York where he sang in his brother's dance band and various local high school bands. After he was discovered by Sammy Davis, Jr. after graduating from school in the early 1950s and invited to his television show, Tony Scott's recommendation led to Nat Hentoff , who referred him to Milt Gabler . He released his first singles at Decca and in 1956 his first album Meet Mark Murphy , in which he was accompanied by the Ralph Burns Orchestra; the album Let Yourself Go followed . Then Murphy moved to Capitol ; the productions of this label were aimed at hits on the pop market, but were not commercially successful.

His two Riverside albums Rah! with Ernie Wilkins ' orchestra dedicated to bebop classics and That's How I Love the Blues with Tin Pan Alley songs and blues arrangements by Al Cohn . Murphy references contained therein to the Big Band - Blues à la Count Basie and the Kansas City Jazz , New York traditions of Benny Carter and Benny Goodman or the Chicago Jazz by Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine and even older material from Joe Turner and Pete Johnson , but also by Horace Silver .

In 1963 he hit the US charts with his version of Fly Me to the Moon . In the following years it gained popularity in Europe and was almost no longer present on the American market. Between 1973 and 1986 Murphy recorded fourteen albums for the Muse Records label , for example with the Brecker Brothers classics of modern jazz such as Naima or Red Clay ; he also sang an album with the songs of Nat King Cole . During this time he developed into one of the leading jazz vocalists, who, in the opinion of the author Will Friedwald, "devoted his career to researching all genres known in jazz". He experimented by allowing stories and sayings to flow seamlessly into the music between the songs and by combining singing with text recitations and poetics. One of his most popular works is the muse album Bop For Kerouac , on which he set poems by Jack Kerouac to music. “Murphy changes techniques the way other singers change songs; often he strings them together like the individual pieces of a medley. […] In his way there is no trace of coercion or unnaturalness; Rather, he resolves to be one of the most exciting jazz-influenced artists and succeeds in mastering the infinitely difficult subtleties and nuances of jazz. "

In the 1980s, several albums were created for Milestone , on which he was accompanied by Claudio Roditi and Art Farmer , among others . In the 1990s he worked with Ack van Rooyen and Jack van Poll, among others . From 1999 a series of albums for HighNote Records followed . In 2005 he released the ballad album Once to Every Heart , which was created in collaboration with the German jazz trumpeter Till Brönner . Another collaboration with Brönner followed in 2007 with the album Love Is What Stays .

Murphy also sang in the style of Vocalese Jazz soli by instrumentalists, which he provided with scat , but more often with clever own lyrics, and secondly, his personal improvisational style extended not only to the melody but also to the lyrics.

Mark Murphy died on October 22, 2015 at the age of 83 at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey.

Awards

Murphy was voted best jazz singer in 1996, 1997, 2000 and 2001 by readers of the music magazine Down Beat . He was also nominated six times for a Grammy for best jazz singing.

Discographic notes

literature

  1. ↑ page 216
  2. ↑ page 218
  3. ↑ page 217

Web links

Commons : Mark Murphy  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Legendary Jazz Vocalist Mark Murphy Dies in New Jersey at 83. In: abcnews.go.com , October 22, 2015, accessed October 23, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Murphy, Mark
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Murphy, Mark Howe (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Syracuse , New York , United States
DATE OF DEATH October 22, 2015
Place of death Englewood , New Jersey , United States