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Midnight Mood


baryshnikov

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Midnight Mood is one of my favorite albums of his.

I first saw Mark Murphy on The Steve Allen Show, which was taped in '68 when that album was current. However, it wasn't shown in New Orleans (my home) until a year later.

I prefer his 60s recordings, as they seem effortless. Once he joined Muse he started to make it more soulful, which I think was a mistake.

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"Sconsolato" IS brilliant. I love that tune!

The rest of the album is no slouch, either. I just realized (never noticed, somehow) that he's backed by members of the Clarke-Boland Big Band. Awsome!

Have to listen to this one again.....soon.

I like many of his Muse albums, too. Especially the first half dozen or so - my favorite being "Mark Murphy Sings". Nearly a perfect album.

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I agree 'Midnight Mood' is a very enjoyable album. Several of the Muse albums I've heard are indeed a bit too "soulful" for mee too, but - as I know BFrank has - I have a soft spot for the Herb Geller album 'An American in Hamburg' (the vocal tracks were also released on Atlantic as 'Rhyme and Reason').

Edited by Daniel A
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Mark Murphy is one of the greatest jazz singers around. He always was, at least since his two Riverside albums (get the OJC's while you can). Never heard him sing badly. That Nat King Cole tribute he did for Muse is great: It takes a lot of courage and skill for a singer to perform with just one instrument at a time!

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With all this knowledge on Mark Murphy, I have a question ?. I have a track by Mark on a compilation the title of which is Why And How. This was co writen by Jimmy Deuchar/Mark Murphy. Now as I am a fan of both these gentlemen I would like to try to get the album. All I know is recorded December 1967 in Cologne Germany,and such people as Francy Boland, Kenny Clarke, Ronnie Scott, Sahib Shihab and Jimmy Deuchar are among the band.

Cheers for any help.

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I'm a fan of the record "RAH" but I think that I've read that recent releases no longer include his version of "I'll be Seeing You" because the publishers complained about his changes to the lyrics (which were pretty funny). A friend of mine sent me a cdr of about 20 versions of Spring Can Really Hang you Up the Most. I sent him back Murphy's version saying I liked it best maybe because it was the first one I'd heard. He replied that he'd never heard it before but agreed with me. BTW Who first recorded "Spring"?

Saw Murphy live a couple of times in the late sixties. Sort of took him for granted. Only later realized that not many jazz singers were that good.

Edited by medjuck
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With all this knowledge on Mark Murphy, I have a question ?. I have a track by Mark on a compilation the title of which is Why And How. This was co writen by Jimmy Deuchar/Mark Murphy. Now as I am a fan of both these gentlemen I would like to try to get the album. All I know is recorded December 1967 in Cologne Germany,and such people as Francy Boland, Kenny Clarke, Ronnie Scott, Sahib Shihab and Jimmy Deuchar are among the band.

Cheers for any help.

It is indeed included on the Saba/MPS album "Midnight Mood".

0000474750.jpg

Recently reissued and available for cheap!

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A friend of mine sent me a cdr of about 20 versions of Spring Can Really Hang you Up the Most. I sent him back Murphy's version saying I liked it best maybe because it was the first one I'd heard. He replied that he'd never heard it before but agreed with me. BTW Who first recorded "Spring"?

I don't exactly know the answer to that, but I have about 15 versions, and the earliest happens to be a vocal version- Irene Kral with Buddy Collette, circa 1957 (from "The Buddy Collette Quintet" on Studio West). Next earliest in my collection is Sarah's recording for Roulette in '62.

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A friend of mine sent me a cdr of about 20 versions of Spring Can Really Hang you Up the Most. I sent him back Murphy's version saying I liked it best maybe because it was the first one I'd heard. He replied that he'd never heard it before but agreed with me. BTW Who first recorded "Spring"?

I don't exactly know the answer to that, but I have about 15 versions, and the earliest happens to be a vocal version- Irene Kral with Buddy Collette, circa 1957 (from "The Buddy Collette Quintet" on Studio West). Next earliest in my collection is Sarah's recording for Roulette in '62.

I've got Chris Connor & Maynard Ferguson from 1961 on Atlantic. Great Willie Maiden chart, one of his very best.

This site http://www.franlandesman.com/code/biogs/franbiog.html tells the story of how the song came about. Tommy is co-composer Tommy Wolf, the Crystal Palace a club in St. Louis (read about it here: http://riverfronttimes.com/issues/2004-03-...ature_full.html ). Fran Landesman is, of course, Fran Landesman.

Fran and Tommy soon began writing songs which he would sing nightly to the drinking masses at the Crystal Palace. One night the British born piano player George Shearing came into the club and was particularly taken with a song whose title Fran had come up with while speculating on how a hip jazz musician might express the T.S. Elliot line "April Is The Cruellest Month...." The song was called 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most'. Shearing left St. Louis with a tape of about six Landesman/Wolf songs which he enthusiastically played to singers and musicians he knew. Amongst of the first to take the bait was the bebop vocal duo Jackie and Roy. Jackie Cain and Roy Krall were to become life long friends and fans of both Fran Landesman and Tommy. Wolf, enthusiastically championing their songs right up to the present day. When Shearing first played them the songs Jackie and Roy were preparing for a stint at Max Gordon's New York cabaret spot The Blue Angel and were looking for new hip material ....they seized on songs like Season In The Sun and You Inspire Me which soon became part of their set and cropped up with increasing frequency on their regular album releases. Around the same time singer Jerry Winter got the ball rolling for the Landesman/Wolf song Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most which she recorded on her album Winter's Here.

Ok, the singer is really named Jerri Winters, and the label was Fraternity. Here's the album:

p1056163868.jpg

Gotta love that cluttered artwork...

Track listing:

p1056163868.jpg

Another page from the same site http://www.franlandesman.com/code/biogs/wolf.html mentions that the song was also recorded by Wolf for an album of the same name on Fraternity in 1957.

The Kral/Collette recording was from a broadcast, right? So the song was definitely "in the air" in 1957. but if you can believe the above, Jerri Winters (of whom I've only marginally heard) was the first to "officially" record it.

The song, and the whole nexus of performers and songwriters who were creating & propagating material of a similar attitudinal bent, is a unique sub-chapter of The Great American Songbook (and probably doesn't qualify as such!). You've got songwriters and performers who still were functioning in the traditional social/functional modes of their respective occupations, but they had all heard bebop & cool, and it had a blatant effect on their music. Coming as it did at the beginning of the Rock & Roll era, most of that material was and still remains remains somewhat "cultish" relative to earlier popular song. but it's definitely a unique body of work.

Sounds like a possible future project for ghost of miles. Paging!

Edited by JSngry
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Interesting... I'm having trouble finding definitive-looking data, but it appears possible that Jackie & Roy recorded it (with Kessel, Mitchell and Manne) in May of 1955 (released on CD by Black Lion in the 80's... but originally released on LP on... Storyville? Anybody know if those were the same recordings?).

The Winters album is dated "11/55" in the online Fraternity discog (http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:9UdjGo...k&cd=3&ie=UTF-8), but I don't know if that's a recording date (not disputing the accuracy of the claim in the blog, just curious if Jackie & Roy could have done it first). Anyway, it looks like Irene's version was a couple of years later.

Edited by Jim R
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I'm a fan of the record "RAH" but I think that I've read that recent releases no longer include his version of "I'll be Seeing You" because the publishers complained about his changes to the lyrics (which were pretty funny).

Interesting. I have this on vinyl with that tune. Yet the version of the album on eMusic does not include "I'll be Seeing You" or the alt version of "My Favorite Things". I assume this is how the CD is configured, too.

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Interesting... I'm having trouble finding definitive-looking data, but it appears possible that Jackie & Roy recorded it (with Kessel, Mitchell and Manne) in May of 1955 (released on CD by Black Lion in the 80's... but originally released on LP on... Storyville? Anybody know if those were the same recordings?).

I have the Japanese vinyl reissue of the Storyville album 'Jackie and Roy'. An old favorite album with oustanding interpretations of 'Lazy Afternoon'and 'Dahuud' among others. Recorded in May 1955.

It does include 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most'.

Liner notes by Alec Wilder who wrote 'And among the unknown songs they have happened on a very effective ballad, off-beat though it may sound at first hearing Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most

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A friend of mine sent me a cdr of about 20 versions of Spring Can Really Hang you Up the Most. I sent him back Murphy's version saying I liked it best maybe because it was the first one I'd heard. He replied that he'd never heard it before but agreed with me. BTW Who first recorded "Spring"?

I don't exactly know the answer to that, but I have about 15 versions, and the earliest happens to be a vocal version- Irene Kral with Buddy Collette, circa 1957 (from "The Buddy Collette Quintet" on Studio West). Next earliest in my collection is Sarah's recording for Roulette in '62.

I've got Chris Connor & Maynard Ferguson from 1961 on Atlantic. Great Willie Maiden chart, one of his very best.

This site http://www.franlandesman.com/code/biogs/franbiog.html tells the story of how the song came about. Tommy is co-composer Tommy Wolf, the Crystal Palace a club in St. Louis (read about it here: http://riverfronttimes.com/issues/2004-03-...ature_full.html ). Fran Landesman is, of course, Fran Landesman.

Fran and Tommy soon began writing songs which he would sing nightly to the drinking masses at the Crystal Palace. One night the British born piano player George Shearing came into the club and was particularly taken with a song whose title Fran had come up with while speculating on how a hip jazz musician might express the T.S. Elliot line "April Is The Cruellest Month...." The song was called 'Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most'. Shearing left St. Louis with a tape of about six Landesman/Wolf songs which he enthusiastically played to singers and musicians he knew. Amongst of the first to take the bait was the bebop vocal duo Jackie and Roy. Jackie Cain and Roy Krall were to become life long friends and fans of both Fran Landesman and Tommy. Wolf, enthusiastically championing their songs right up to the present day. When Shearing first played them the songs Jackie and Roy were preparing for a stint at Max Gordon's New York cabaret spot The Blue Angel and were looking for new hip material ....they seized on songs like Season In The Sun and You Inspire Me which soon became part of their set and cropped up with increasing frequency on their regular album releases. Around the same time singer Jerry Winter got the ball rolling for the Landesman/Wolf song Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most which she recorded on her album Winter's Here.

Ok, the singer is really named Jerri Winters, and the label was Fraternity. Here's the album:

p1056163868.jpg

Gotta love that cluttered artwork...

Track listing:

p1056163868.jpg

Another page from the same site http://www.franlandesman.com/code/biogs/wolf.html mentions that the song was also recorded by Wolf for an album of the same name on Fraternity in 1957.

The Kral/Collette recording was from a broadcast, right? So the song was definitely "in the air" in 1957. but if you can believe the above, Jerri Winters (of whom I've only marginally heard) was the first to "officially" record it.

The song, and the whole nexus of performers and songwriters who were creating & propagating material of a similar attitudinal bent, is a unique sub-chapter of The Great American Songbook (and probably doesn't qualify as such!). You've got songwriters and performers who still were functioning in the traditional social/functional modes of their respective occupations, but they had all heard bebop & cool, and it had a blatant effect on their music. Coming as it did at the beginning of the Rock & Roll era, most of that material was and still remains remains somewhat "cultish" relative to earlier popular song. but it's definitely a unique body of work.

Sounds like a possible future project for ghost of miles. Paging!

E-mail received and post duly noted!

Murphy fans should check out the spankin' brand-new reissue of his early-1960s Capitol albums HIP PARADE and PLAYING THE FIELD.

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Interesting... I'm having trouble finding definitive-looking data, but it appears possible that Jackie & Roy recorded it (with Kessel, Mitchell and Manne) in May of 1955 (released on CD by Black Lion in the 80's... but originally released on LP on... Storyville? Anybody know if those were the same recordings?).

The Winters album is dated "11/55" in the online Fraternity discog (http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:9UdjGo...k&cd=3&ie=UTF-8), but I don't know if that's a recording date (not disputing the accuracy of the claim in the blog, just curious if Jackie & Roy could have done it first). Anyway, it looks like Irene's version was a couple of years later.

Much to my surprise & dismay, I was unable to locate a Storyville Records (the early 1950s George Wein label, not the later one) discography online, not even in Mike Fitzgerald's otherwise near-comprehensive lable listings.

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We've got Brownie confirming the recording date! What was the release date? The BSN site usually goes by release date.

It's possible that Fran Landesman (or whoever created the content for her website) doesn't even know who first recorded her most famous song!

But I love how the song was at first perceived as "off-beat". Shows you what the overall clime of the times was. Dobie Gillis & Peter Gunn were still a few years away...

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We've got Brownie confirming the recording date! What was the release date? The BSN site usually goes by release date.

Details, details (but that's our job, right? ;)) So, you mean to tell me if Buddy Bolden recorded it, but it isn't going to be released until 2007 (when Uptown gets ahold of it), then he still wouldn't get credit for being the first... ? I'm so confused. :lol:

It's possible that Fran Landesman (or whoever created the content for her website) doesn't even know who first recorded her most famous song!

That's what kept me awake last night!

But I love how the song was at first perceived as "off-beat". Shows you what the overall clime of the times was. Dobie Gillis & Peter Gunn were still a few years away...

People probably wondered if it had something to do with the telephone...

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We've got Brownie confirming the recording date! What was the release date? The BSN site usually goes by release date.

Details, details (but that's our job, right? ;)) So, you mean to tell me if Buddy Bolden recorded it, but it isn't going to be released until 2007 (when Uptown gets ahold of it), then he still wouldn't get credit for being the first... ? I'm so confused. :lol:

Well, if you want the true first recording of it, then that's probably the tape of Tommy Wolf doing it (at the Crystal Palace in St. Louis) that George Shearing passed around. :excited:

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  • 1 month later...

Bob Dorough's evidently just released a CD of Fran Landesman songs. This message was posted to Yahoo Songbirds today (great listserv, btw, for anyone who's interested in vocal jazz... and I do miss the vocal jazz forum that we had at the Blue Note board):

I haven't read much here or anywhere else about this new CD. I got it

about a week ago and must have listened to it 10 times already. I

bought it because I'm a Bob Dorough fan. I really didn't know that

much about Fran Landesman. Only three of the dozen songs on this

release were familiar to me: "The Ballad of the Sad Young Men",

"Nothing Like You" (here sung by Trudy Kerr instead of Dorough), and

the title tune. (Oddly enough, her most famous work, "Spring Can

Really Hang You Up the Most", is not included here.) The other songs

on this CD were almost all pleasant surprises for me. It's easily the

most enjoyable CD I've bought so far this year.

Fran Landesman has an informative website, but surprisingly there is

no mention of this CD there yet:

http://www.franlandesman.com/

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