Mark Murphy

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

Your accompanist has a lot to do with how you sing, so experiment and choose your partner wisely.

I’ll always remember when I first heard Lester [Young]. I’d never heard anyone like him before. He was a stylist with a different sound. A sound I’d never heard before or since. To be honest with you, I didn’t much like it at first.

In order to compose, all you need to do is remember a tune that no one else has thought of.

There are no natural barriers. It’s all music.

It is this tendency to play with manic enthusiasm on every possible occasion that distinguishes the amateur Jazz musician from the professional.

The day of the great jazz improviser who doesn’t know how to read music is over.

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some blues.

It’s the group sound that’s important, even when you’re playing a solo. You not only have to know your own instrument, you must know the others and how to back them up at all times. That’s jazz.

I wanna hear myself everywhere

In this trumpet I hear our icons and the sound of the future.

When you listen to a pianist, each notes should have an identity, each note should have a soul of its own.

[In 1972] At the moment, we’re getting the same thrill from seeing the Eagles, Jackson Browne, Jo Jo Gunne, and Judee Sill happen… It’s as hard to do it with Jackson Browne as it was to do it with Joni five years ago.

I love to hear the note sing.

I write about moments, and I don’t make blanket statements about anything because no one has all the answers; nobody’s come up with a foolproof way to do anything when it comes to emotions.

Good Jazz is when the leader jumps on the piano, waves his arms and yells. Fine Jazz is when a tenorman lifts his foot in the air. Great Jazz is when he heaves a piercing note for 32 bars and collapses on his hands and knees. A pure genius of Jazz is manifested when he and the rest of the orchestra runaround the room while the rhythm section grimaces and dances around their instruments.

When we were at the Apollo, Holiday was a block away. I asked her for her autograph.