Mark Murphy

I didn’t get my music together until I was 40.

My singing evolved with a feeling of intense relaxation, always using my diaphram and breathing specifically through my nose.

Jazz is a beautiful woman whose older brother is a policeman.

First I was working on classical music that didn’t move me at all. I hated it. So I decided to discover the kinds of classical music that did move me—like Chopin, Satie, Beethoven, and certain Mozart songs. Mozart would play a counterpart with his left hand while using his right to mock it. It was blue, dark, shadowy and it made me feel something. That’s when I realized music was inside me.

Jazz is something you have to feel, something you have to live.

People may say I can’t sing, but no one can ever say I didn’t sing.

I like people who have worked long and hard, developing through introspection and dedication.

It made no sense to ignore them and to continue writing as if they did not exist. I felt that it was worth the effort to see if I couldn’t say what I had to say in the simplest possible terms.

Jazz music is a special skill that has brought pleasure to millions throughout the world.

My chops were not as fast… [but] I just learned more on what was in my mind than what was in my chops. I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it’s the right one, and it will probably whip the guy with twenty notes.

It’s like a whole orchestra, the piano for me.

He’s not a performer, he’s not a composer, he’s not even a musician, but Norman Granz is Mr. Jazz.

I don’t really look at my career in terms of highlights and low lights. I think I’m at this place right now and to be at this place right now I’ve had to go through many obstacles and lots of highs and lows and for me it’s about the entire journey.

I think I was supposed to play Jazz.

Stevie didn’t use the technology to drive the song. He used it to enhance. I use the tools to further my work, I don’t use my work to further the tools.

The fabulous places I’ve been, wonderful things that’ve happened, great people I’ve met ought to make a story.

Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.