Listen to this week’s playlist on YouTube and Spotify
When Mark Murphy died in October of 2015, the obituaries claimed that he had been almost the last of his kind. Murphy, it was said, was a man who embodied the spirit of postwar bohemia, the ‘On the Road’ Kerouac generation who fought against the straight life of prosperity and numb consumerism they saw all around them. With a catalog of more than 40 albums under his own name as well as numerous collaborations, Murphy resisted orthodoxy. He could very likely have enjoyed a successful mainstream career had he remained a crooner in the vein of Mel Torme or Jack Jones, but he had greater ambition to carry the jazz vocal flame. He was a consummate improviser, who never sang a song the same way twice. It is that Mark Murphy we encounter on “Wild and Free,” a previously unreleased historic engagement at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco, which was his only performance at the club.
For the esteemed Brazilian composer, arranger and pianist Antonio Adolfo, his life’s work has been to bring to the world the diverse richness of the Brazilian music traditions—with a particular focus upon its parallel developments with the profound legacy of jazz. But of equal importance is making great music, to which his many highly acclaimed and Latin Grammy-nominated albums clearly testify. For his latest excursion, the incomparable Wayne Shorter provides the essence of his focus with “Hybrido: From Rio to Wayne Shorter.” In his masterful hands, eight iconic Shorter compositions are brilliantly re-imagined, while remaining utterly respectful and confluent with the composer intent.
Also this week, saxophonist Corbin Andrick’s “Bonzo Squad” album was cultivated on Wednesday nights at the Arrogant Frog in Chicago, where his group performs weekly.
Mariah Parker’s Indo Latin Jazz Ens
emble is captured “Live in Concert” at several northern California venues.
The Jeff Lorber Fusion is joined by Andy Snitzer, Chuck Loeb and Nathan East on “Prototype.”