Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mark Murphy was born on March 14, 1932 in Syracuse, New York and raised in a musical family, his parents having met as members of the local Methodist Church choir. He grew up in the nearby small town of Fulton where his grandmother and then his aunt were the church organists. Opera was also popular in the house and he started piano lessons at the age of seven.

Murphy joined his brother’s jazz dance band as the singer when a teenager. His influences were Nat King Cole, June Christy, Anita O’Day, Ella Fitzgerald and Art Tatum. Graduating from Syracuse University in 1953, majoring in Music and Drama, university life included performing on campus and clubs playing piano and singing.

In 1954, Murphy moved to New York City working part-time as an actor and singer. He appeared in productions for the Gilbert and Sullivan Light Opera Company, musical TV version of Casey at the Bat and twice took second place at the Apollo Theater amateur contests.

Mark’s debut recording was Meet Mark Murphy in 1956, followed closely by Let Yourself Go in ’57. In 1958 Murphy moved to Los Angeles and recorded for Capitol, but returned to New York in the early ’60s and recorded the album Rah! in 1961 for Riverside Records. By 1963, he hit the charts with his single of “Fly Me To The Moon” and was voted New Star of the Year in Down Beat Magazine’s Reader’s Poll.

The late 1960s saw Murphy moving to London, England where he worked primarily as an actor but continued to cultivate his jazz audiences in Europe. He returned to the States in 1972 and began recording an average of an album a year for more than fourteen years on the Muse label including a two volume Nat King Cole Songbook, Bop For Kerouac, Living Room, Beauty and the Beast and Stolen Moments, in which he peened lyrics to the Oliver Nelson tune. He received critical acclaim and numerous Grammy nominations.

In 1984 together with Viva Brasil he recorded the album Brazil Song (Cancões do Brasil) that featured original material by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Milton Nascimento. In 1987, Mark recorded Night Mood, an album of songs by Brazilian composer Ivan Lins, appeared on U.F.O.’s last two releases in which he has written and rapped lyrics on songs composed with the group and opened up further new audiences in the acid-jazz and hip-hop genres demonstrating jazz’s timelessness while transcending generations and styles.

Through the Nineties and into the new millennium he released Song For The Geese, Once to Every Heart, Love is What Stays and Never Let Me Go. Mark collaborated with Finish jazz band Five Corners Quintet and released a tribute EP to Shirley Horn titled Beautiful Friendship. He has guested on recordings with Madeline Eastman, Gill Manly,Guillaume de Chassy, Daniel Yvinec, Till Brönner, Pete and Conte Candoli and has amassed a catalogue of more than forty albums as a leader. Vocalist Mark Murphy has continued to tour internationally into his 80s, appearing at festivals, concerts, in jazz clubs and television until his passing on October 22, 2015 in Englewood, New Jersey.

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