• Home
  • About
    • Doug Ramsey
    • Rifftides
    • Contact
  • Purchase Doug’s Books
    • Poodie James
    • Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond
    • Jazz Matters
    • Other Works
  • AJBlogs
  • ArtsJournal
  • rss

Rifftides

Doug Ramsey on Jazz and other matters...

Correspondence: About Mark Murphy

Mark Murphy may have had his problems the past few years, but rumors that he is not singing well appear to be unfounded. Rifftides reader and occasional correspondent Jim Brown sent a report with evidence.

A year or two ago, there were suggestions that Mark was in bad health, perhaps had dementia, and that he might not be performing again. Here’s a performance from last summer that will blow you away. Whatever his health problems might have been, it seems clear that he’s still hanging in. There are several other pieces of video from the same set that are worth watching, but this one is the masterpiece. Pianist Jon Cowherd, bassist Boris Kozlov and drummer Willard Dyson are the accompanists in this medley from the Kitano in New York.

Mark is now living in Englewood, NJ, near drummer Billy Hart. I had asked Billy if he could find out how Mark was doing. A few months ago, he called to tell me that Mark had dropped in to Trumpets, a club almost around the corner from Billy’s house, and that he seemed in good shape and “it was like the Mark Murphy show” for a while.

Thanks to Mr. Brown for the Murphy alert. Additional videos from the Kitano gig show up at the bottom of the embedded screen. If you’re interested in more Murphy, among his many albums this one for the Riverside label in 1961 is still one of the best.

Related

Doug Ramsey

Doug is a recipient of the lifetime achievement award of the Jazz Journalists Association. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where he settled following a career in print and broadcast journalism in cities including New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, Portland, San Antonio, … [MORE]

Subscribe to RiffTides by Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Archives

Recent Comments

  • Rob D on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • W. Royal Stokes on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • Larry on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • Lucille Dolab on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside
  • Donna Birchard on We’re Back: Pianist Denny Zeitlin’s New Trio Album for Sunnyside