Customer Reviews

September Ballads

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

 

 

This is one of Marks best albums...a recording you can sit back relax and listen to without all the stunts that he sometimes pulls on his recordings....mellow yet full of fire marks voice is rich and full...and takes you to places that are in your dreams...a beautiful cd sung by a master vocalist when he dosnt try to over sing it.. well done Mark you would make Sarah Vaughan proud of this one!!!! way to go....

Recently discovered this gem of a recording. Though the title suggests all slow sad songs, many of the ballads contain that energy that only Mark can give to a standard. Sausalito was written(words and music)by Mark. Also an Eliane Elias brazilian flavored tune graces this albumn. Definitely check this out, even if you're new to Mark Murphy!

Released at least 20 years after Mark Murphy's still best-selling, "Rah," "September Ballads" presents a a bigger-voiced, more sensitive interpreter than the popular earlier release. In fact, Murphy's control of phrasing, breath support, security of pitch, and sustaining of long notes is of a quality to make a listener question why he is sometimes overlooked in discussions of that ever diminishing number of male jazz singers who continue to matter. Although the CD was issued contemporaneously with an LP edition on vinyl, listeners in this instance should definitely favor the CD, if only for its inclusion of one song omitted from the LP: Willie Nelson's "Night Life."

As a musician, I've tried to play the Nelson hit as an instrumental as well as attempted to accompany vocalists on the tune. Like most of the songs written since 1960, especially by guitar players whose primary idiom is country and western, the tune is relatively formless. The first eight bars, which are repeated, are quite effective, but at measure 17 Willie inserts a "bridge" that makes no sense harmonically and basically goes no where. Those jazz musicians who proudly display their "avantness" and aversion to conventional forms should listen to guitar-playing C&W songwriters if they want to experience formlessness and freedom. That's not meant as a criticism but an observation. Songwriters like Nelson work out a lyric and then find chords that fit it, if sometimes very loosely. The pieces are simply allowed to fall where they may: there's no attempt to approach the song with a set form in mind, such as a 12-bar blues or 32-bar pop song.

The result works quite well for Willie but is a hazard course for any other musician who attempts to interpret ("cover" has become the preferred, if regrettable, term these days) the same material. On the recent album featuring Nelson in concert with Wynton Marsalis, the song works largely because Wynton simply uses the extended space, the extra bars, the absence of chord changes to make use of his impressive repertory of growling and plunger-like Ellingtonian effects and colors. No matter that the horn is overkill compared to Willie's lyric and its intended mood: Marsalis puts on a striking show of his own, and he would do the same with any song that sustained a single C7 chord for essentially 8 measures.

The point is that Mark Murphy takes the Willie Nelson hit and alters it just enough to make it workable for a jazz singer. In fact, he's tightened it up sufficiently for it be a "standard," with a life beyond its composer. Even dedicated fans of C&W music and/or W. Nelson deserve to hear the two versions side by side.

The reason this album isn't a five-star album, in this reviewer's opinion, has nothing to do with the material, or with Mark's performance or interpretations. The reverb is simply excessive, and moreover I detect the irritating, overly repeated sound of synthesizers (I shouldn't say so, but I know listeners who would use the term "cheesy" in describing them). Both the reverb and string synths were probably quite acceptable "back in the day," but since the late-80s they've worn out their welcome. Were the audio engineering "drier" (less heavy on the reverb) and the plug pulled on the synths, the listener's experience would be the better for it and, in the end, the result would be a more intimate connection between performer and listener.

This is a stunningly beautiful album. Artful, sophisticated, lyrical jazz singing that, with every tune, touches the heart.

I wore out this album and had to buy the CD. Listen to "Sack Full of Dreams," and you'll be glad that you purchased the disk.

That's great, that's very great! That's Murphy! 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. It's just a different Murphy but it's the very same great Murphy, always brilliant. But look: don't even drink Coke while you listen to it.

It's not easy to listen to Mark Murphy: his sound is not for unprepared ears. It's just like drinking true "beaujoulais" wine: don't drink it once and fast, enjoy each drop calmly. BTW, this is the overall mood in this great CD. Pat Metheny and Larry Dunlap are also briliant in their solos. Murphy as always in great shape.

This cd has its moments and its non-moments...some of the lyrics are a little corny but he still SOUNDS great. Some of these songs must be really difficult (technically) to sing. I love "Crystal Silence" on this album.