From his debut Rah (1961), Mark Murphy has proven himself to be one of the most adventurous and versatile jazz singers of his generation. At the time, he presented himself as a post-bop vocalist who drew his repertoire mainly from radically adapted standards. Forty-six years later, little appears to have changed. Love Is What Stays was recorded under the production management of German trumpet player
… Till Brönner and shows that Murphy, who now looks like a kind of feral Al Pacino, still works according to the same concept. The post-bop returns in Oliver Nelson's Stolen Moments and The Interview, which begins as a poem and develops into a subtle scat with restrained orchestral accompaniment from the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin. Extreme pop adaptations can be heard in So Doggone Lonesome (Johnny Cash) and What If (Coldplay). Murphy takes revenge with Angel Eyes, which could also be heard on his debut, but for which he was actually too young at the time. (AD)more
