Customer Reviews

Once to Every Heart

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Listening to Mark Murphy sing is one of those quintessential aesthetic experiences where time stands still long enough for phrasings of pregnant silence to accentuate the simple, elegant form that envelops and lingers in consciousness. It is comparable to slow-flight over a sea of sunflowers beaming gold out to a dappled, untroubled sky, the majestic rise of El Capitan at Yosemite and the deep, dark, blue of a moonlit shoreline at the far north's Hudson's Bay.

ONCE TO EVERY HEART is an extraordinary collection of ballads that seep deep into one's nighttime soul. There is the introductory tune, "I'm Through With Love (Fudd Livingston/Matty Malneck/Gus Kahn), sung famously by Marilyn Monroe in SOME LIKE IT HOT (1959) and recorded by Ella Fitzgerald in the same year. In Murphy's extraordinary rendition, pianist Frank Chastenier's delicate right hand creates a sound like the gentlest cascade of water in a slow meander along a shallow brook as Murphy intones, lentamente, "Why did you lead me to think you could care? You didn't need me for you had your share - of slaves around you - to hound and swear - with deep emotion - devotion - to you. I'm through with love, I'll never love again. Said adieu to love, don't ever call again..."

As never fails with any Mark Murphy production, the listener is rewarded with exquisitely inventive arrangements and the accompaniment of premier musicians. In this case, in addition to Chastenier, there is elegant time-keeping by bassist Christian Von Kaphengst, Nan Schwartz's string arrangements, and standout collaboration between Murphy and Europe's top jazz trumpeter and flugelhorn player, Till Bronner, who also produced this Verve album. One of my favorites (they were all favorites), a tune written by Bronner, "Our Game," has a silky-smooth trumpet intro and the parallel play of voice and horn as is true of the tunes throughout including "Bein' Green," the signature tune, "Once to Every Heart," featuring an intro with Bronner's melodious horn, and "It Never Entered My Mind." There are two medleys: "When I Fall in Love/My One and Only Love" that begins a capella, then ends with a double falsetto, and "Skylark/You Don't Know What Love Is." There is also the tune composed by Murphy "I Know You From Somewhere." And guess who plays the keyboard on Ellington's "Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me" - Murphy.

Unless those moments for candlelight and wine no longer have a place on a frenzied planet, you will almost certainly enjoy, and hopefully share, the consummate artistry of Mark Murphy's ONCE TO EVERY HEART. That he has been nominated six times for an Emmy, but never received the award, says more about the Emmy process than Murphy, the singer's singer and musician's musician.

I used to have this "rule"--any c.d. with nothing but slow ballads gets 4 stars from me, no matter what. But then I heard John Coltrane-Johnny Hartman's album, Sinatra's "Sings for Only the Lonely" and Shirley Horn's "Here's To Life." How can anyone with ears not give each of those 5 stars? And I was reminded of Bill Murray's classic linefrom "Ghostbusters": "As a rule, I never get intimate with possessed women"; and then, as the haunted Sigourney Weaver sends out obvious signals of her intentions, adds, "Well, it's not really a rule; it's an 'area'".

This is an album of nothing but slow ballads; even Duke's "Do Nothing 'Til You Hear From Me" is done at an adagio tempo. Rarely will you hear a more gorgeous album, from an instrumental standpoint. Til Bronner's fluegehorn and trumpet echo Murphy's singing with the same type of breathless flourishes, and sound tremendous. Frank Chastenier's piano is brilliantly spacious, giving the master singing innovator plenty of room to wiggle around each song's melody. And the string orchestra sounds great in these arrangements: romantic swoops aplenty, but not overdone at all a la Mantovani.

And what of Mark Murphy himself? Does the inveterate hipster, the master of bending melody and lyric, belong in a setting like this? In the liner notes, he says he does: he thinks it's his best album. I don't quite agree with him, respectfully. I remember, the light, clear, strong voice he had back in 1962 with "Rah". His voice has become coarser over time, and this album would have worked better with the "1962 Murphy." And, unlike last year's "Bop for Miles", sometimes he reinvents the lyrics lines here to where he is emphasizing the wrong words.

Nevertheless, I've struggled back and forth with a 4-star vs. 5-star rating, and I've finally settled on "the area" of 5, for one basic reason: Even with the quibbles, this album moves me. This album is compelling, and every selection is memorable. And ultimately, I think that is a better standard for determining a 5-star album. RC

This is the best CD that Mark Murphy has ever done. Unlike Sinatra, Mark sings -- not croons. His sound is only magnificant. Till Bronner is the new Chet Baker and every single song is sensational. My favorite at the moment is the title song. I am saving up money to buy enough CDs to send to those I love -- near and afar for the holidays. On a two hour car trip, accompanied by this CD, the time passes too quickly. I urge you to listen and make up your own mind.

Mark Murphy is the greatest living jazz vocalist and he sounds better than ever on this beautiful recording. This CD of ballads is exquisite. The arrangements sublime, the strings are beautifully understated, in fact all the musicianship on this recording is first rate. Mark's ability to paint a picture with his voice is unique. He tells a story like no one else. Listening to this CD is a wonderful experience - expect goosebumps! Aspiring jazz musicians and particularly vocalists have much to learn from him. Mark Murphy should get a Grammy for this one, he deserves it.

This album has captured me from the moment I first put it on - and after hundreds of listening sessions it still grabs hold and won't let go. The interplay of Mr. Murphy and Frank Chastenier especially is simply otherwordly. And Mr. Brönners warm tone fits the whole set perfectly, as does the smooth violin accompaniment. An absolute must-have for music lovers of every genre.

Buy this album (Don't buy it used! Support the artists!). You won't regret it.

Mark Murphy has outdone himself. The master has recorded what may be his finest work ever. We fans have been hoping for an all-ballads album from him for quite some time now and he has delivered the goods! Till Bronner's production and his subtle, mood enhancing work on the trumpet is sublime. This CD evokes the mood and feeling of Shirley Horn's classic, 'Here's To Life'.

I have one concern though and it isn't about the CD but a "review" posted on this site. My question is, how can someone who hears ONE song on the radio submit a damning review of the whole album? I am referring to the "review" posted by a S. Ellis of Pittsburgh, PA. This CD is garnering rave reviews from writers and DJs all over the world. These are people who know their jazz and how it should be performed. S. Ellis obviously has no idea what jazz is or he/she would not/could not make the kind of asinine comments he/she has made. It is most unfair to Mark Murphy to post these comments without hearing the whole CD. I highly recommend this CD to any and all who love jazz and appreciate Mark Murphy's extraordinary talent. Grab a loved one, a bottle of wine, get cozy and play this CD. I guarantee good things will happen!

Yes, to me Once to Every Heart is the ultimate in good taste. Mark and his superb co-artists bring an emotional depth to these ballads that is seldom heard. Every nuance tugged on my heart strings. Just love it!