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Songbook (Mark Murphy album)

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Songbook
Compilation album by
Released1999
Recorded1972–1991
GenreVocal jazz
Label32 Jazz
ProducerMichael Bourne

Songbook is a compilation album of American jazz vocalist Mark Murphy's Muse Records recordings. It was released by the 32 Jazz label in the United States in 1999. This album is a collection of songs from his Muse years 19721991.

Background

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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 put together the four collections.

This release collects standards recorded by Murphy on his Muse albums covering the years of the Great American Songbook and beyond. Murphy often recorded the rarely heard introduction to these songs, as well as uncommonly recorded alternate verses. For example, on "Body and Soul" from Mark Murphy Sings, Murphy explains, "I think I heard the verse on a Billie Holiday record, and I heard the particular chorus lyric on a Morgana King record, and I just put them together. I hadn't heard these lyrics to it in years by anybody, and we gave it a little 6/8 feel. It came out like a new song."[2] Similarly, he records the rarely heard introduction to "As Time Goes By".[3] And on "I Can't Get Started" he sings lyrics that Ira Gershwin wrote years after the song debuted in the Ziegfield Follies of 1936.[3][4][5]

Murphy explains his approach, "I'm not a stylist. A stylist is typed and non fluid. I'm fluid. Every time I open my mouth to sing, it comes out somewhat differently. It actually helps me to deal with each respective audience because l've learned to read audiences. I can readily tell what's happening and what they want. Whereas a stylist comes out to sing and if the audience doesn't like it, he/she is stuck, because they can't do anything else to adapt to the demands for change".[3][6]

According to Michael Bourne, Murphy particularly wanted "Again" from Stolen Moments included in the collection. Murphy said, "I use a 12/8 feel on the drums on the ballads, allowing me to do it incredibly slow. Yet it doesn't drag. You completely go with the word 'slow' or you go with the word 'fast.' There is nothing in between. There isn't kind of slow or kind of fast. Hey just listen to the words. It's all there".[3][6]

Four Brazilian jazz standards are also contained in this collection from composers Antônio Carlos Jobim, Milton Nascimento, and Ivan Lins. Murphy not only recorded many over the years but also featured them in his live performances. He often devoted his second set of a nightclub engagement exclusively to Brazilian songs. Murphy said, "I don't hear much new material that knocks me out. The best songs now being written are coming from Brazil. It's almost as though they've written into the Brazilian Constitution that it is illegal to write a bad song".[3]

A tribute to the lyricist Johnny Mercer is also included, "Miss You Mr. Mercer". Murphy said, "I always really loved Johnny Mercer, not only his lyrics but the fact that he was a genius and he could sing almost as good as Nat King Cole, which is as good as you can get".[3][7]

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[8]

Reception

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Jason Elias, writing for AllMusic, says: "This compilation has Murphy coming into his own (around the early '70s) as a dramatic and often flawless stylist". He calls the collection, "an excellent compilation that presents some of the finest and sometimes most emotionally draining of one of music's most talented and eclectic singers". He praises the compilation for finding definitive performances, singling out the tracks "Triad", "How Are You Dreaming?", "No More", "Again", "We'll Be Together Again", "The Island", "Nothing Will Be as It Was Tomorrow", and "I Fall in Love Too Easily".[8]

Scott Yanow says this release is "excellent" in his book The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide.[9]

In his book A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, Will Friedwald says 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". 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".[10]

Track listing

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Disc one
No.TitleLyricsMusicAlbumLength
1."As Time Goes By"Herman HupfeldHupfeldBridging a Gap3:03
2."No More"Bob RussellTutti CamarataBridging a Gap3:16
3."Again"Dorcas CochranLionel NewmanStolen Moments3:31
4."We'll Be Together Again"Frankie LaineCarl T. FischerStolen Moments3:40
5."Don't Go To Strangers / Don't Misunderstand"Redd Evans / Gordon ParksArthur Kent, David Mann / ParksSatisfaction Guaranteed5:42
6."All the Things You Are"Oscar Hammerstein IIJerome KernSatisfaction Guaranteed6:01
7."Body and Soul"Frank Eyton, Edward Heyman, Robert SourJohnny GreenMark Murphy Sings5:20
8."I Can't Get Started"Ira GershwinVernon DukeBeauty and the Beast6:28
9."Desafinado"Newton MendonçaAntônio Carlos JobimBrazil Song (Cancões Do Brasil)3:54
10."The Island"Alan Bergman, Marilyn Bergman, Vítor MartinsJobimBrazil Song4:06
11."Bridges"Fernando Brant, Gene LeesMilton NascimentoBrazil Song4:07
12."Nothing Will Be as It Was Tomorrow"Ronaldo Bastos, Rene VincentNascimentoBrazil Song3:55
13."The Bad and the Beautiful"Dory PrevinDavid RaksinBop for Kerouac3:51
14."You'd Better Go Now"Bix ReichnerIrvin GrahamBop for Kerouac3:26
15."The Night We Called It a Day / There's No You"Tom Adair / AdairMatt Dennis / Hal HopperKerouac, Then and Now7:41
16."Lazy Afternoon"John La ToucheJerome MorossKerouac, Then and Now4:54
Disc two
No.TitleLyricsMusicAlbumLength
1."We Could Be Flying"Paul WilliamsMichel ColombierBridging A Gap3:44
2."Steamroller"James TaylorTaylorBridging a Gap3:19
3."Triad"David CrosbyCrosbyMark II4:34
4."How Are You Dreaming?"Allan ShatkinBob CreweMark Murphy Sings4:35
5."Don't Be Blue"Michael FranksJohn GuerinStolen Moments3:38
6."Eleanor Rigby"John Lennon, Paul McCartneyLennon, McCartneySatisfaction Guaranteed5:33
7."Close Enough for Love"Paul WilliamsJohnny MandelThe Artistry of Mark Murphy5:09
8."Autumn Nocturne"Kim GannonJosef MyrowThe Artistry of Mark Murphy3:53
9."Outubro"BrantNascimentoBrazil Song4:05
10."Our Love Rolls On"Dave FrishbergFrishbergLiving Room4:10
11."What a Way to Go"June TonkinJune TonkinWhat a Way to Go6:09
12."I Fall in Love Too Easily"Sammy CahnJule StyneWhat a Way to Go4:15
13."All My Tomorrows"CahnJimmy Van HeusenWhat a Way to Go6:03
14."I'll Close My Eyes"Buddy KayeBilly ReidI'll Close My Eyes5:39
15."Miss You Mr. Mercer"Jack SegalDuncan LamontI'll Close My Eyes5:08
16."The Best Thing for You"Irving BerlinBerlinOne for Junior4:42
Total length:2:27:31

Personnel

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Production

  • Michael Bourne – compilation producer, liner notes
  • Gene Paul – mastering
  • Page Simon – graphic design
  • Nancy Dwyer – graphic design
  • Becky Wisdom – production coordinator
  • Joel Dorn – series producer

References

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  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ Bourne, Michael, (1975). Mark Murphy Sings. (Liner notes). Mark Murphy. Muse Records
  3. ^ a b c d e f Bourne, Michael. (1999). Songbook. (Liner notes). Mark Murphy. 32 Jazz.
  4. ^ Gershwin, Ira; Kimball, Robert (2009). Ira Gershwin: selected lyrics. American poets project. New York: Library of America. pp. 90–100. ISBN 978-1-59853-052-0. OCLC 434563558.
  5. ^ Gershwin, Ira; Kimball, Robert (1993). The complete lyrics of Ira Gershwin (1st ed.). New York: A. Knopf. pp. 254–256. ISBN 978-0-394-55651-2.
  6. ^ a b Wong, Herb. (1978). Stolen Moments (Liner notes). Mark Murphy. Muse Records.
  7. ^ Primack, Bret. (1994). I'll Close My Eyes. (Liner notes). Mark Murphy. Muse Records.
  8. ^ a b Elias, Jason. Mark Murphy – Songbook: Review at AllMusic. Retrieved 2024-06-04.
  9. ^ Yanow, Scott (2008). The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide. New York: Backbeat Books. pp. 161–162. ISBN 978-0-87930-825-4.
  10. ^ 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.
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