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I will make the understatement of the day and assert that it was a hoot to both produce and warm up vocally for jazz singer legend Mark Murphy with my big band. I guess both Mark and myself were both a little apprehensive in meeting each other for the first time, but after the fact, my recollections of the two vocal jazz concerts which I produced with my co-producer, Mike Mersch were studies in humor, great jazz phrasing, indestructible vocalese by Mark, and ultimately down a little road later…
A warm friendship. I have been aware of Mark for some 50 years, (back in the Stolen Moments days,) and although I’ve never tried to copy him vocally, I have gladly tried over the years to imbue his bent for both great choices in harmony, and his finely honed rhythmic melodic articulation into my musical sensibilities. This is something any singer or instrumentalist with any level of maturity can hardly ignore. He’s a one of kind in a generation artist! He has molded his art with an uncanny ability to express extreme levels of emotion particularly in his ballad style from the shear panoply of contact with his natural surroundings over these last six+ decades. This is the supreme triumph in his craft. The music he presents to us his listeners is delivered with a certain total and joyful confidence. He’s singular in this gift to cut to the essential nature of a song and act it out forthwith for our benefit. Subjectively speaking, I feel therefore that Mark is working under a certain supervision of the creative imagination while he develops the songs that he sings. He expands them, spotlights them, dovetails them into one another and finally brings the song to fruition as he envisioned it in its original conception... A rare talent indeed!!This is a singer who can exploit the expressive power of music with taste and class. His craft bursts at the seams as it were. I’m not sure the romantics of this age totally understand his visionary approach to music. He’s created a kind of expressive revolution that we must reconcile with. We must have gratitude for a man who for almost seven decades has portrayed music with such eloquence, joy, hope, sorrow, and desire… the very human characteristics that he has sung about for many years. The musical riches contained in his heart and soul, (as well as his mind) are some of the most moving artistic experiences that we as his listeners can both feel and observe. If our enjoyment and understanding of Mark Murphy’s art is not to be impoverished, let us be thankful for his tenacity and salute the great service he has bestowed on our beloved jazz idiom.
