Murphy’s Law         by Ollie Bivins

*in ‘All About Jazz’ special edition - March 2008 / Vol.6 No.2

For Paul Murphy improvisation is akin to going on a journey. "Improvisation," he affirms, "coupled with undaunted diligence and study leads one to invention, innovation and spirituality. If you study something long enough, you develop your own ideas through absorbing what has gone before you and around you in the present day. That will lead to you inventing your own self, which in my case means I have invented my own style and concept of playing. Once that has developed, it almost becomes a sphere and you become able to view the spiritual and physical aspects of everything that is surrounding you. Whether it's in a room, the planet, the universe, God, Buddha or wherever you want to take it. That is what I feel about what I play."

And with 50 years as a professional drummer, Murphy has played with musicians whose calling card has been improvisation, invention, innovation. The list includes William Parker, Joel Futterman, Ran Blake, Kidd Jordan, and Hamiet Blueitt. He was also a member of Jimmy Lyons' band. One of his longest and most rewarding musical associations, though, is the present one with pianist Larry Willis. Their latest duet release, Excursions is a 12 song, 74 minute conversation between musical soul mates. "We've been playing together for the past 12 years, off and on, in different venues," Murphy states. "The album is the height of our playing and the most free I have felt playing since Jimmy Lyons transitioned in 1986. I have not had such fluid communication other than Larry since I played with Jimmy. It's almost teleconnectic with Larry, whether it's something as far back as the late 1800s type of music, or all the way out into what people call the avant-garde and following and flowing through bop as well as standards. The album was recorded in about five hours. To me, it's a very beautiful rendering of my understanding of music and relating it to the listener as best we know how. My whole heart and soul are in this album. I believe it is the best CD I have been on." An added bonus to Excursions is the exceptional sound quality that fully captures the roar and whisper of Murphy's drum kit and the decay of the piano notes of Willis. The traditional setting for a drummer in jazz has been any aggregation ranging from a trio to an orchestra. An entire album of duets with a piano, or any other instrument, for that matter, is rare. For Murphy, though, it all comes down to what the players bring to the session or bandstand. "I actually don't believe there is a real difference in playing in a duet and in a larger setting," he maintains. "What is really apparent and inherent is that the musicianship has to be there, whether in a duo scenario or trio, quartet, quintet or big band. You can have a big band that sounds one way and then you can have Count Basie's band and that's another whole ball game. And what is separating all that is the communication ability of the players. And Larry and I seem to be able to completely absorb ourselves within the music and just play. We're not having to presuppose what we're going to do. We don't even talk about what we're going to do. We just go into the studio and play. No written heads. No preconceived ideas." And although Murphy's rep and respect as a drummer is largely based on his associations with musicians who play more "out," he has also had collaborations with players who are considered more mainstream such as Clifford Jordan, Woody Shaw, and Billy Taylor. Comparing and contrasting playing "outside" and "in," Murphy upholds that the "outside" requires more intensity in the playing as far as physical intensity. "In the avant-garde, most of the time, the music is going 20, 30, 60 minutes at a clip without a break. To sit in there and try to act in a setting like that is completely different than interacting with Clifford Jordan, for example. With Clifford, I'm interacting as emotionally as I possibly can and also staying within his framework. Whereas, most of the outside stuff is not really locked into a tight structured framework that has been written out. With Larry, though, on Excursions, there are a few tunes that are definitely free and what I would consider the avant-garde and they are very intense, but they flow really smoothly. That's the kind of flow that at the apex of playing in Jimmy Lyons' group also happened in the avant-garde when it was really succinct and really locked up. But there's few people who are playing at that level. Hamiet Blueitt, Kidd Jordan, and William Parker are. And that's what I loved about it. I was sold on all of that."

Born in Worcester, Massachusetts and growing up in Washington, D.C., Murphy,

now 59, began playing drums at around the age of three. At age five, he got to play for Gene Krupa. "This happened in a club. Gene said, 'So you play drums?' I said, 'Yes, sir.' He said, 'Show me what you play.' He just spun the chair around and handed me a pair of sticks. I just sort of froze and then started beating away at 'Sing, Sing, Sing.' He just started talking to me and showed me some things with the sticks. From there, anywhere Gene was, I was there." And what did he learn from the famous drummer? "In the times I was able to spend with him, he taught me that you have to know the melody and play to the melody as another instrument, not as a timekeeper," Murphy elucidates.

Other longtime friends that have left an indelible imprint on Murphy were drummers

Rashied Ali and Louie Bellson. "Rashied Ali basically took me in off of the street," he fondly recalls. "I arrived in New York City years ago in a 1964 Oldsmobile, living in it. Rashied Ali listened to a cassette of myself and Mary Anne Driscoll and gave the both of us jobs in his jazz club. I was the manager. I spent seven days a week listening to the most beautiful music I've been surrounded with. What Rashied gave to me is love and love of the music and the people who play it and the audiences who listen to it." Bellson is credited with giving Murphy a great deal of direction in technique and the phrasing and usage of the drum set. "I was just blown away at his brilliant technique. He was so fast, clean and smooth. And his accents were just deafening. I was honored to play at his wedding reception when he married his wife Francine, where I was the premier soloist of 14 drummers, which was a highlight of my life." Still, one of his dearest and most missed associations was that with bandleader Jimmy Lyons, who also spent some 26 years with Cecil Taylor. "Jimmy Lyons" was one of the most sensitive people I have ever met. His love and devotion to music just enamored me. The other person that was just like that, however, not as quite well known was trumpeter Dewey Johnson. I spent thousands of hours with Jimmy, Dewey and Rashied Ali and all those cats are about is the music."

For Paul Murphy, it's about giving it your all, being true to yourself and finding your own voice as a musician. "If you are not playing straight out of your heart and you haven't really put in the time to try to absorb as much as possibly can, then you are not really

Playing anything that will become what is known as innovation because innovation is what is separating your concept and style from many others that are out there. I have studied a lot of drummers: Gene, Louie, Max Roach, Papa Joe Jones, Philly Joe Jones, and Rufus Jones, who blew my mind when I met him in the Ellington Band. I tried to learn as much as I could about everybody's style. I tried to assimilate their styles, but I also knew that to play somebody's style on the bandstand, well, you might as well just go and buy the record."