Best of Mark Murphy

Mark Murphy, Mark Murphy | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 18, 1997)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Blue Note Records
• ASIN: B000005H0O
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,288 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #10 in Music > Indie Music > Jazz > Vocal Jazz
  • #71 in Music > Jazz > Modern Postbebop

Track Listings

1. Put the Blame on Mame

2. Swinging on a Star

3. Playing Field

4. Day In - Day Out

5. This Could Be the Start of Something Big

6. I Didn't Know About You

7. Blacksmith Blues

8. Kansas City

9. Wishing

10. As Long as I Live

11. Witchcraft

12. I Only Have Eyes for You

13. That Old Black Magic

14. Cheek to Cheek

15. Jersey Bounce

16. Sweet Georgia Brown

17. Lucky in Love

18. Hit the Road to Dreamland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this!, March 25, 2004

By 

hmurph "murph" (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of Mark Murphy (Audio CD)

I love this! I've been listening to Mark since I was born, 1969, but these songs had been long since forgotten in my house as we listened to his ever changing newest release. Dancing to his jazzy vocalese at 6 at the Dock in San Francisco, I never would have dreamed I'd hear him sing classic standards. In my adult life I've long been a fan of the crooners such as Frank, Sammie, and Dean. They're just so fun and simple to listen to. To hear Mark sing in this style! Now I get it, he has so much more talent. Listen to these few releases and you'll see, this was too easy for him, he was like a caged bird dieing to get out and show how he could fly. He does these standards beautifully, love listening to them, but I understand now why he went underground to do more......

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Late 50's Recordings of Standards from a Master, June 21, 2000

By 

William Faust (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of Mark Murphy (Audio CD)

I avoided buying this disc for a long time because I thought it was a career-spanning compilation of Mark's work and I'm not a big fan of those multi-decade samplers. But this is a well-chosen collection of some of the work Mark did for Capitol in the late 50's backed by a tight studio band and some interesting arrangements on several standards and some blues. I know I'll offend some jazz purists here but this is actually my favorite Murphy disc because its pre-vocalese and pre-experiemntation on his part - just mainstream treatments of some classic tunes. Not that his later evolution was bad but I prefer Murphy's tremendous pipes and meticulous phrasing applied to the classic great American song genre versus a more exploratory jazz context. If you love the classic songs and love Mark's chops, you'll love this disc.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mark's Early Year's, December 31, 2003

By 

H D. MEIJ "Herman van der Meij" (Jipsinghuizen, Holland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of Mark Murphy (Audio CD)

This is the young Mark Murphy with some splendid Bill Holman arrangements. What more can I say?
The only shame is : Capitol why not issue all three Capitol albums?????????????