20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mark Murphy is not Entertainment!, November 20, 2005
It's not easy to listen to Mark Murphy.
He was gifted a musician's mind and he flies up to the limit in his improvisations as well as he decomposes and recomposes slow ballads in such a perfect craftwork and personality that one should remark as beautifully unexpected.
Mark Murphy is not entertainment! A Real vocalist for those people who are singers, for those people who can catch all his technique, understand it and feedback it to the mind for pleasure or professional reference. Ok, please include those experienced ears though not necessarily ears of one who sings but one who digs it all.
My reaction to this album resembled the same one I had some years ago when listening to his other ballad album 'September Ballads'. This beautiful album is still available here @Amazon. Refer to my review.
I wrote at that time: - 'I hated this record when I first listened to it. What a fool of me! Then one day, some six months ahead, I had a sudden sensation of wonderful discovery.' The difference now was that I fell in love with the new album instantly after having listened to it for some six times.
Ok. This is a collection of ballads straight to the heart but not with those honey string arrangements one could expect. To tell the truth, arrangements here are pretty economic and Murphy's voice sets the mood in all its entirety.
Also repertoire is not that obvious although some widely recognized standards are included. Two smart medleys from Murphy's privilleged mind combine 'When I Fall in Love' with 'My One and Only Love' and 'Skylark' with 'You Don't Know What Love Is'. Great!
I can't understand why there is a difference between American issue and the Japanese one: this offers one more song, a brilliant rendition of Herb Ellis' 'Detour Ahead'.
So I'd rather have the Japanese issue but, you know, you'll have to pay the price if you'd also rather have it.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An instant classic, December 3, 2005
Mr. Murphy is an artist who challenges you....He is an interpretor of lyric and melody. And with this latest effort (Once To Every Heart), Murphy brings his art to all who will listen. There are no drums, no percussion.....just the lyric, melody and harmonies...wonderful arrangements and the amazing flugelhorn playing of Til Bronner. It's about love, about loss, about being green....about life and how he has lived it. It's a touching, triumphant and wonderful musical statement....it's accessable to all just for the listening. So, late one night...when you're alone.... or with a lover, turn down the lights, light the candles and throw a log on the fireplace.....this is the place to be.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, the ballad album that Mark Murphy should have done decades ago!, October 28, 2005
In the 49 years that he's been recording, Mark has almost always worked with small combos, but now he's joined by Till Bronner (a German trumpeter in the style of Chet Baker), a very tasteful pianist and an orchestrator who knows that less can be much more. When others his age have retired because the pipes are gone, Mark's voice refuses to grow old, and he takes chances kids half his age wouldn't dare to try. (It's easy to belt a tune. Difficult to take it to a pianissimo.) It's a great 3 o'clock in the morning album that will enhance romantic social interaction... if you know what I mean.
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