Mark Murphy

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

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

Stop before you’re done.

You just sort of have to play the way you are.

You gotta mean it and you gotta treat it gentle.

Jazz attracted me because in it I found a formal perfection and instrumental precision that I admire in classical music, but which popular music doesn’t have.

If a guy’s got it, let him give it. I’m selling music, not prejudice.

You could still improvise but do it with lyrics.

If the bass plays the root, a pianist superimposes a Maj7 built on the 5th and the sax plays the 13th, will hot women notice?

Yeah, it’s more like playing what you think is appropriate for the moment, not forcing any particular style.

I’ve always depended upon my own melodic instinct, instead of scale like formulas.

I’m not like a legend that – so I’m sort of in the middle in this sort of gray area where, you know, I’m creating music, and I’m not saying there isn’t an audience, because there is; because all of those people go out and spend $80 to $150 on a concert ticket.

Jazz is a beautiful woman whose older brother is a policeman.

If you want to be a good blues singer, people are going to be down on you, so dress like you’re going to the bank to borrow money.

I’ve had the pleasure of playing with the baddest Jazz cats on the planet.

The main thing is to be satisfied with your work yourself. It’s useless to have an audience happy if you are not happy.

If you must listen to bad music, please use headphones.