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Mark Murphy died last night in his sleep following a long illness. He was 83. Murphy’s eagerness to take artistic chances combined with his innate musicianship to make him one of the most interesting singers in jazz. He died at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey. Born in Fulton, New York, in 1932, He sang from the age of four and studied acting at nearby Syracuse University. Following graduation in 1953, he played piano and sang in Syracuse and moved to New York City in 1954. He scuffled as an actor and at day jobs that included managing a donut shop. He made his first album for Decca in 1956.

In a career of nearly six decades, Murphy began with a smooth approach that incorporated not only overall swing feeling but also command of time inside the phrases of songs. As he developed, he made increasing use of the techniques of vocalese and became an idiosyncratic master of scat singing. He made scatting work in settings from standard songs to explorations of advanced material by John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard and Herbie Hancock. Murphy tackled dated songs like “Hard Hearted Hannah” and “Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Good To You” with the same creative urge to experiment that he applied to songs by Antonio Carlos Jobim and other Brazilian composers. Here’s an excerpt from my notes for the reissue together of his first two albums:

Early on, it was apparent that he had the ability to respect the composer’s and lyricist’s intent for a song while interpreting it from the standpoint of a creative artist whose study and preparation was leavened by spontaneity in performance. In other words, young Mr. Murphy was imbued with the spirit of jazz.

Aside from his clarity of diction, what distinguishes Murphy in these early records—and has ever since—is his grasp of the essentials of rhythm as understood by jazz musicians, and particularly his use of rubato. His time feeling extended through the execution of the slowest performances, and it allowed him to succeed when taking liberties with the meter of a lyric, often giving it an interior swing all its own.

In his more than 40 albums, there are plenty of examples of Murphy’s way with time, lyrics and melodies. Here’s one that caught the ears of listeners and critics when he was barely known. It’s from his 1961 album Rah!

For a detailed obituary and appreciation of Mark Murphy, see Matt Schudel in The Washington Post.

Miles Ahead, the movie, opened today at the New York Film Festival. Veteran actor Don Cheadle directed the film, which stars him in the title role (pictured). Since it became known months ago that the motion picture was in the works, speculation has been rampant about its faithfulness to Davis’s character and, particularly, about musical accuracy. An exclusive clip from the Yahoo website may address at least part of the concern. It shows Cheadle as Davis rehearsing “Gone” from the 1958 album Porgy and Bess. Gil Evans composed the piece, the only one in the album not written by George Gershwin. Jeffrey Grover plays Evans.

Fair warning: the scene runs barely longer than a minute. Come back when it’s over or you’ll be trapped in unrelated Yahoo clips and ads. I was unable to isolate the clip from the extraneous material. To see Cheadle as Davis and Grover as Evans, go here.

For comparison, here is the “Gone” track from the Davis-Evans Porgy and Bess album.

In a brief review, New York Times critic A.O. Scott writes,

Blending musical biopic standards (ill-starred marriage, drug addiction, record-company shenanigans) with caper-movie riffs (pistol-whippings, car chases, sketchy deals with shady characters), “Miles Ahead” at its best is as witty and knowing as Mr. Cheadle’s sly, whispery performance. The music is pretty good, too.

The independent film is billed as going into general release today. See your local movie listings.

Bill Kirchner, An Evening Of Indigos (JazzHeads)

Soprano saxophonist and composer Kirchner’s concert in New York a year ago has appeared in its entirety as an album. Kirchner overcame daunting physical problems to be able to play the concert—indeed, to be able to play at all. Throughout the jazz community it is known that removal of a tumor on his spinal cord kept him alive but also left him with a limp and with his right hand all but immobilized. In DownBeat magazine’s Pro Session column, Kirchner tells in fascinating detail what he and two ingenious technicians achieved in rebuilding his saxophone to allow him to compensate for the lack of function in three of his fingers. The November DownBeat is on newsstands and in the mail to subscribers. It is not available online.

For his concert at Manhattan’s New School, where he has taught for years, Kirchner played with pianist Carlton Holmes, bassist Jim Ferguson and vocalist Holli Ross. In the Rifftides review of the concert, I wrote that it was “remarkable for its lyricism, musicianship, restraint and the unity of the musicians.” For an hour and a half, Kirchner and his friends maintained an atmosphere of lyricism and intimacy in a repertoire of ballads that included several with his words and music. His compositions are in good company with others by Burt Bacharach, Antonio Carlos Jobim/Gene Lees and Rodgers and Hart.

Ferguson, undiscovered by many despite his artistry, sang as well as he played. His “Save Your Love For Me” is one of the most moving versions of the Buddy Johnson classic ever put on a recording. Ms. Ross is superb throughout, notably so in Kirchner’s and Loonis McGlohon’s “I Almost Said Goodbye.” Though no one sings Rodgers and Hart’s “He Was Too Good To Me,” Kirchner’s tone and phrasing convey the heartbreak of the song. The piece ends the album. Nothing could have followed it. This Rifftides post from last November discusses the concert, and links to an entry from Marc Myers’ JazzWax that incorporates the concert video.

This weekend, The Seasons Performance Hall in Yakima, Washington, marks its 10th anniversary with two concerts by pianist Bill Mays, the hall’s first performer. In its early years the decommissioned Christian Science Church, an acoustic marvel, was dedicated to presenting classical music and jazz. Its policy then broadened to encompass other styles of music including blue grass, gospel, rock and pop. Now, The Seasons is launching new jazz and classical series. Drummer Louis Hayes’ Cannonball Legacy band initiated the jazz series a couple of weeks ago.

Mays and his trio with Martin Wind and Matt Wilson played the hall’s inaugural concert to a packed house on October 13, 2005. Friday evening, Mays will be back with his Inventions Trio featuring trumpeter Marvin Stamm and cellist Alisa Horn. The classical Finesterra piano trio—fellow veterans of The Seasons—will also perform on Friday. Saturday, Mays and I will revive the History Of Jazz Piano presentation that we first did a few years ago at a festival in Oregon (pictured). I’ll talk a bit about some of the pianists most important in jazz history and most important to Bill. He will play pieces written by or strongly associated with James P. Johnson, Bud Powell, Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock and 23 other pianists. Earlier this week, Pat Muir of the Yakima Herald-Republic spoke with us about the concert. To read his cover story in the newspaper’s weekly entertainment supplement, go here.

From the early days of the Inventions Trio, here is “Rollin’ Down the Water Gap” from Mays’ Delaware River Suite.

And just for fun as this busy weekend approaches, here are Mays, bassist Martin Wind and drummer Matt Wilson pretty much as they looked and sounded at that first concert at The Seasons a decade ago. Bill calls the piece, “Snow Job.”

Phil Woods died today, less than a month after he announced his retirement from playing. He was 83. Woods’ longtime drummer Bill Goodwin told me this afternoon that the veteran alto saxophonist “went out on his own terms,” electing to stop treatment for the emphysema that for years slowed—but did not stop—his career as a performer and bandleader. One of the most renowned of the saxophonists inspired by Charlie Parker, Woods was a perennial poll winner. His quartet with bassist Steve Gilmore, drummer Goodwin and, most recently, pianist Bill Mays, won frequent awards as the best small group in jazz.

Woods began playing the alto saxophone as a 12-year-old in his hometown of Springfield, Massachusetts. Following studies in New York with Lennie Tristano and further education at the Manhattan School of Music and Juilliard, Woods became a professional musician before he turned 20. His early career included work with Charlie Barnet, Jimmy Raney, George Wallington, Dizzy Gillespie and Kenny Dorham. He went on to become one of the music’s busiest freelancers, recording with fellow alto player Gene Quill and with George Russell, Neal Hefti, Jackie Cain Roy Kral, Manny Albam, Al Cohn & Zoot Sims, Benny Goodman, Quincy Jones and Thelonious Monk—among many others. During late 1960s and ‘70s in Paris he led his European Rhythm Machine with George Gruntz, Henri Texier and Daniel Humair.

Shortly after making Musique du Bois with an all-star rhythm section, Woods formed a permanent quartet with Gilmore and Goodwin, expanding it for a time to a quintet with the addition of trumpeter Tom Harrell in the 1980s. Toward the end of the 1990s he toured with his own big band. Late in his career, Woods insisted that in personal appearances quartet his perform acoustically. The banishment of amplification reflected his devotion to keeping the music as pure as possible and went hand in hand with the passion he brought to his playing. Here’s Phil in a 1986 New Years Eve club appearance with the Cedar Walton Trio. Ray Brown is the bassist, Mickey Roker the drummer

Phil Woods, RIP.

Here it is nearly the close of Bud Powell’s birthday and I’ve had my nose too close to the grindstone to take note of it. He would have been 91 today. If I had to choose one recording by Powell to celebrate all that he bequeathed us, it might be “Un Poco Loco” from 1951, with Curley Russell on bass and Max Roach playing drums. This is from volume 1 of The Amazing Bud Powell, an album title that does not have a trace of hype.

Rudy Van Gelder did a remarkable job of remastering The Amazing Bud Powell.

This is the last day of summer. It would be wrong to let the season get away without a proper sendoff. There are, of course, countless recorded versions of the George Gershwin song from Porgy & Bess that gave summer its own anthem. The recording unanimously chosen by the Rifftides staff is from a landmark album made in 1959. Arranger and conductor Bill Potts assembled 19 of the decade’s finest musicians to make The Jazz Soul of Porgy & Bess. They played in Webster Hall, an acoustic marvel in New York City. Jack Lewis produced, and Ray Hall engineered the album in perfect two-track stereo. There is no more joyous way to bid farewell to summer than with this masterly Potts arrangement of “Summertime.” The soloists are Harry Edison, trumpet; Al Cohn and Zoot Sims, tenor saxophone. The YouTube audio seems a bit low here. You may want to crank up your speaker volume.

The United Artists LP of The Jazz Soul of Porgy & Bess quickly sold out and became a collectors item. The album was reissued on CD a few years ago in a digipak with a booklet that reproduces the original gatefold LP cover, all of the photographs, and the liner notes by André Previn and Dom Cerulli. To substantiate the line in the introuction above about the “19 of the decade’s finest musicians,” here’s the list:

Trumpets—Charlie Shavers, Harry Edison, Bernie Glow, Art Farmer, Markie Markowitz. Trombones—Bob Brookmeyer, Frank Rehak, Earl Swope, Jimmy Cleveland, Rod Levitt. Saxophones— Phil Woods, Gene Quill, Zoot Sims, Al Cohn, Sol Schlinger. Rhythm section—Bill Evans, piano; Herbie Powell, guitar; George Duvivier, bass; Charlie Persip, drums.

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Jim Wilke continues to feature on his Jazz Northwest music he recorded at this summer’s Centrum Port Townsend Jazz Festival. Here is his announcement about tomorrow’s program.

Each Sunday, Jazz Northwest presents music by resident and visiting musicians in the Pacific Northwest. This week’s show includes Triology from Vancouver BC, Wayne Horvitz and the Royal Room Music Collective Ensemble, Dave Frishberg from Portland, and New York based saxophonist Steve Wilson playing in downtown Port Townsend during the jazz festival in July. Jazz Northwest airs Sundays at 2 PM on 88.5 KPLU and streams at kplu.org (Photo of Steve Wilson by Jim Levitt)

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Bill Evans died 35 years ago today at the age of 51. Long before everybody dug him, his producer, Orrin Keepnews, titled a 1958 album Everybody Digs Bill Evans. The cover had autographed endorsements from Miles Davis, George Shearing, Ahmad Jamal and Cannonball Adderley.

“Bill Evans has rare originality and taste,” Adderley wrote, “and the even rarer ability to make his conception of a number seem the definitive way to play it.” Adderley was perceptive and the album title was prophetic. Soon, Evans moved from acclaim by the jazz inner circle to the admiration of musicians everywhere and an audience that expanded throughout his regrettably short life. He had a profound effect on the development of the music. From Everybody Digs Bill Evans, we remember him with “Peace Piece.”