Mark Murphy

I was delighted to find a copy of Mark Murphy's new CD "Once to Every Heart" nestling amongst the oh-so-very-exciting computer programming books in my boyfriend's latest delivery from Amazon. It's a recording of rare, subtle charm that is a pleasure to listen to.

I wouldn't call myself a huge fan of Murphy's by any means. The man's back catalogue is so extensive that it's going to take me a fair while to investigate all of it and come to an informed opinion of his work as a whole, but I like what I've heard so far. I happened to tune in to him giving a radio interview when he was in the UK over the summer and I listened because I really like Kurt Elling's music. From what I understand, Murphy and Elling are quite closely linked musically, with the former being a big influence on the career of the latter, so I was keen to find out what Murphy's music was all about. It was a great interview and it convinced me to seek out "Once to Every Heart" . Murphy is every inch the "hipster's hipster" that he is so often described as being in the jazz press and he came across as being musically adept but also funny and engaging.

His personality is reflected in his latest CD, which contains some of the most heartfelt vocal performances I've ever heard. He has a way with lyrics that squeezes out every inch of emotion from the words but is never overly dramatic. He never goes too far with his performance, but you listen to him and you believe every word that he sings. His arrangements, too, are models of quiet virtuosity, lacking the obviousness of so much that is churned out by the army of young crooners currently crowding the jazz music scene. Those singers might bring welcome fresh blood, but they could learn a lot from a master with such a long career as Mark Murphy.

My enjoyment of "Once to Every Heart" is being enhanced by the anticipation of seeing Kurt Elling perform with the British singer Ian Shaw at the London Jazz Festival on Friday night. Having seen him live once before, I reckon it's going to be great and I'm really looking forward to going to the Queen Elizabeth Hall to see him again.