Mark Murphy was born March 14, 1932 – making today his 90th birthday. Across a wide career of creative and innovative recordings, he pushed the edges of what it meant to be a jazz singer, incorporating a much more contemporary approach to phrasing, musicianship, improvisation, and repertoire. He also incorporated Beat poetry and other creative elements from outside the realms of jazz singing.
I was lucky enough to see him several times, and have cherished memories of singing in both intimate clubs and in concert halls. He was a true iconoclast, unafraid to push people in new directions musically.
Much of his discography is not available on streaming services, including his legendary Bop For Kerouac and many others; all of his early crooner albums seem to be available, so you might get a false impression of who he was by listening online. Even so, there’s enough there to dig in to his amazing work. Listen to the compilation Giants of Jazz: Mark Murphy, listen to his first album, Rah!, and listen to one of his late albums from around 2000-2005, such as The Latin Porter, Lucky To Be Me, or the lovely but not-on-Spotify Song For The Geese.
Mark Murphy loved exploring with his music, and he loved the words he got to sing. Listen for those two things.