Jazz Standards (Mark Murphy album)
| Jazz Standards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Compilation album by | ||||
| Released | 1998 | |||
| Recorded | 1972-1991 | |||
| Genre | Vocal jazz | |||
| Length | 2:01:11 | |||
| Label | 32 Jazz | |||
| Producer | Michael Bourne | |||
| Mark Murphy chronology | ||||
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Jazz Standards is a compilation album of American jazz vocalist Mark Murphy's Muse Records recordings. It was released by the the 32 Jazz label in the United States in 1998. This album is a collection of jazz songs from his Muse years 1972-1991.
Background[edit]
Muse Records was founded by Joe Fields in 1972. Fields sold the label in 1996 to Joel Dorn who released four compilation albums from Mark Murphy's Muse catalogue on the 32 Jazz label, Stolen...And Other Moments, Jazz Standards, Songbook, and Mark Murphy Sings Nat King Cole & More.[1] Writer and broadcaster Michael Bourne was enlisted to put together the four collections.
Bourne writes in the liner notes to Mark Murphy Sings that Murphy, "is a jazz singer, which is a special art. What you can do with a song instrumentally, you can't do with a song vocally, or not as much, because a song is words and music, and improvising with lyrics isn't simply grunting and singing 'baby' a lot. It's the art of knowing what the song is about, the imagery of the lyrics, the feelings, within and without the music, which Mark Murphy is a master of."[2]
Murphy told Bourne in 1997, "Miles' lesson to me is to dare and risk. I really am improvisational. I don't know where I'm going until I go there. That's why it's hard for me to sing the same thing over — because I can't remember what I did the night before."[3] Discussing the importance of the melody and lyrics to Murphy's approach, Murphy says, "It depends on the song. There are certain songs where the melody might be stronger than the lyric, or the lyric might be a fascinating story. There are certain songs where you don't have to improvise, but just sing it as written. You can infer improvisation by not singing at all, or rhythmically pausing, or hitting a note so squarely in tune that you create overtones. Some singers now never touch the melody. That's not interesting to me — because the composer has written something. I like to hear the melody, or at least a reference to the melody — and then you take it away."[3]
Will Friedwald says in his book A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, "Over the years Murphy has recorded dozens if not hundreds of songs that have originated within the world of jazz itself...There is literally no important writer of the modern and postmodern ages he doesn't include somewhere along the line".[4] This release includes a large sampling of those composers and their songs. Friedwald writes, "He has been clever enough to find the great lyricists of the jazz song genre — Jazz Standards has three Lambert, Hendricks & Ross classics in a row ("Charleston Alley," "Farmer's Market," and "Bijou"), and he's also sung Abbey Lincoln's "Living Room". He's sung what few vocalese standards there are as well...".[4] This release also includes two of Murphy's own vocalese with his lyrics to jazz instrumental improvisations on Wayne Shorter's "Effendi" and Lee Morgan's "Ceora". He added his own lyrics to John Coltrane's "Naima". One Murphy original song is included, "Come and Get Me".[5][3]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [6] |
Reception[edit]
Michael G. Nastos assigns 4 stars to the album at AllMusic.[6] He said, "It's a good overview of his middle career, he's in fine voice, and the backup players are first-rate. There's only one of his originals, but many of his inventive lyrics to standards are here, along with other modern jazz pieces..there's plenty in this two-CD, 26-track collection to show how Murphy had matured, and how fertile his mind was. Recommended, if you can find it".[6] He singles out the jazz compositions "Effendi", "Ceora", "Bijou", "Doxy", and "Ask Me Now".[6]
Scott Yanow says Jazz Standards is "excellent" in his book The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide.[7]
Assessing Murphy's recorded legacy from Muse Records in his book A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, Will Friedwald points out the four Muse anthologies issued by Joel Dorn show "the astonishing range and scope, not to mention sheer size, of the singer's seventies and eighties output".[4] Friedwald goes on to say the releases reveal, "his output has been so consistently excellent—that so many of these records deserve to be regarded, in retrospect, as classics of the jazz vocal genre—and that even his occasional missteps are instructive".[4]
Friedwald desrcibes Murphy's voice as a high baritone in his twenties which developed "into a deeper, gray, wood-toned timbre" by his forties with a wide vocal range extending from a deep base to a high falsetto. He likened his tone to a less nasal Jack Teagarden, quite distinct from all of the other male Great American Songbook singers.[4]
Track listing[edit]
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Album | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Come and Get Me" | Mark Murphy | Murphy | Bridging a Gap | 3:37 |
| 2. | "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good to You" | Andy Razaf | Don Redman | Bridging a Gap | 3:01 |
| 3. | "Maiden Voyage" | Jean Hancock | Herbie Hancock | Mark Murphy Sings | 5:26 |
| 4. | "Sly" | Hancock | Hancock | Stolen Moments | 4:12 |
| 5. | "Effendi" | Murphy | Wayne Shorter | Beauty and the Beast | 4:41 |
| 6. | "Naima" | Murphy | John Coltrane | Mark Murphy Sings | 4:49 |
| 7. | "Waltz for Debby" | Gene Lees | Bill Evans | Satisfaction Guaranteed | 3:38 |
| 8. | "Triology for Kids: Babe's Blues / Little Niles / Dat Dere" | Hendricks / Weston / Oscar Brown Jr. | Randy Weston / Weston / Bobby Timmons | The Artistry of Mark Murphy | 4:59 |
| 9. | "Ceora Lives" | Murphy | Lee Morgan | What a Way to Go | 4:07 |
| 10. | "Saxophone Joe" | H. Smith | H. Smith | What a Way to Go | 3:31 |
| 11. | "Doxy" | Sonny Rollins | Rollins | Beauty and the Beast | 6:44 |
| 12. | "If You Could See Me Now" | Carl Sigman | Tadd Dameron | Kerouac, Then and Now | 6:45 |
| 13. | "Lush Life" | Billy Strayhorn | Stayhorn | Mark Murphy Sings the Nat "King" Cole Songbook, Volume One | 4:22 |
| No. | Title | Lyrics | Music | Album | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "The Lady Who Sang the Blues" | Edwin Duff | Duff | Beauty and the Beast | 5:29 |
| 2. | "Memphis Blues" | George A. Norton | W. C. Handy | Beauty and the Beast | 6:10 |
| 3. | "Charleston Alley" | Leroy Kirkland, Robert Bruce | Kirkland, Bruce | 2:39 | |
| 4. | "Farmer’s Market" | Annie Ross | Art Farmer | Stolen Moments | 2:51 |
| 5. | "Bijou" | Jon Hendricks | Ralph Burns | Satisfaction Guaranteed | 3:30 |
| 6. | "Misty / Midnight Sun" | Johnny Burke / Johnny Mercer | Erroll Garner / Mercer, Sonny Burke | Living Room | 5:56 |
| 7. | "Living Room" | Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach | Lincoln, Roach | Living Room | 5:30 |
| 8. | "Along Came Betty" | Benny Golson | Beauty and the Beast | 4:45 | |
| 9. | "I Remember Clifford" | Hendricks | Golson | The Artistry of Mark Murphy | 3:37 |
| 10. | "Goodbye Porkpie Hat" | Joni Mitchell | Charles Mingus | Bop for Kerouac | 4:48 |
| 11. | "Ask Me Now" | Ben Sidran | Thelonious Monk | Kerouac, Then and Now | 3:37 |
| 12. | "The Bird: Tribute (Quasimodo) / Embraceable You" | Sheila Jordan / Ira Gershwin | Charlie Parker / George Gershwin | One for Junior | 7:05 |
| 13. | "Ain't Nobody Here but Us Chickens" | Alex Kramer, Joan Whitney | Kramer, Whitney | Living Room | 5:22 |
| Total length: | 2:01:11 | ||||
Personnel[edit]
Production
- Michael Bourne – compilation producer, liner notes
- Gene Paul – mastering
- Page Simon – graphic design
- Nancy Dwyer – graphic design, illustrations
- Amy DiDonato – production coordinator
- Joel Dorn – series producer
- William Claxton – photography
References[edit]
- ^ Jones, Peter (2018). This is Hip: The Life of Mark Murphy. Popular music history. Sheffield, UK; Bristol, CT: Equinox Publishing. p. 126. ISBN 978-1-78179-473-9.
- ^ Bourne, Michael. (1975). Mark Murphy Sings... (Liner notes). Mark Murphy. Muse Records
- ^ a b c Bourne, Michael. (1998). Jazz Standards (Liner notes). Mark Murphy. 32 Jazz.
- ^ a b c d e Friedwald, Will (2010). A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers (Kindle ed.). New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. pp. 350–351. ISBN 978-0-375-42149-5.
- ^ "Mark Murphy Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More..." AllMusic. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
- ^ a b c d Nastos, Michael G. Jazz Standards - Mark Murphy | Album | AllMusic, retrieved 2024-05-21
- ^ Yanow, Scott (2008). The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide. New York: Backbeat Books. pp. 161–162. ISBN 978-0-87930-825-4.
External links[edit]
- Jazz Standards at MusicBrainz (release group)
- Jazz Standards at Discogs (master release)
- Jazz Standards at AllMusic (release)
- Mark Murphy in The Penguin Guide to Jazz at Internet Archive
- Mark Murphy in The Rolling Stone Jazz & Blues Album Guide at Internet Archive
