Mark Murphy

I didn’t get my music together until I was 40.

My singing evolved with a feeling of intense relaxation, always using my diaphram and breathing specifically through my nose.

You gotta mean it and you gotta treat it gentle.

Players are coming from other backgrounds: rock, folk, ethnic music. It’s changing Jazz for the better.

If a guy is gonna to play good bop, he has to have a sort of a bop soul.

[On Louis Armstrong] You can’t play nothing on modern trumpet that doesn’t come from him, not even modern shit. I can’t even remember a time when he sounded bad playing the trumpet. Never. Not even one time. He had great feeling up in his playing and he always played on the beat. I just loved the way he played and sang.

I don’t think anybody steals anything; all of us borrow.

I’m not claiming divinity. I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can… But I still believe in peace, love and understanding.

The fact that an artist is experiencing the joy of creation makes me feel like we’re in it together.

Everybody has somebody that they patterned themselves after.

Jazz music is the real deal.

What we do as artists is a combination of experience and imagination. How that creeps into your work is not so linear.

Talk of God is most often in church. Is there a God outside of church? I hope so. But how should I know? How does anybody know?

Even if people don’t understand the language that you’re singing in, they still know good music when they hear it.

Three months. I was playing the organ for three months. It was a challenge for me in the beginning.

I’m now a legend, whether I want to be or not.

I’m an interpreter of stories. When I perform it’s like sitting down at my piano and telling fairy stories.