A Beautiful Friendship - But Beautiful
Get Out Of Town - Here’s To Life
12” 180gm 33rpm Vinyl EP
Includes free download code

Release date: 12 June 2013
Cat no: GB1515
Barcode: 5065001717161

Personnel:
Mark Murphy - vocal
Till Brönner - trumpet
Alex Minasian - piano
Curtis Lundy - double bass
Steve Williams - drums

Recorded by Bob Fowler at SSR at The Merion Inn, Cape May, NJ. November 2012.
Mobile recording unit by SSR Recording. Assistant Engineer: Stephen Branca.
Mastered by Jeremy Cooper at Gearbox Records.
Produced by Jean-Pierre Leduc & Darrel Sheinman for Gearbox Records
Concept by George Mesterhazy

LINER NOTES
Here’s to Beautiful Friendships by Christopher Loudon

True to the unpredictability that is the quintessence of jazz, an artistic capriciousness that counts Mark Murphy among its consummate practitioners, this EP started out as one thing and then morphed into something slightly different, and eminently richer.

It was George Mesterhazy, the brilliantly accomplished pianist and arranger, who originally conceived the idea of Murphy paying tribute to Shirley Horn. Renowned for his work with such vocalists as Rebecca Parris, Paula West and Murphy, Mesterhazy was a proteǵé of Horn’s and, in her later years when ill health curtailed her playing, became not just her pianist but a seamless extension of her artistry.

Murphy was immediately keen on the project because of his enduring admiration and affection for Horn. “I never knew her well,” he says, “but our paths would cross at festivals and clubs and it was always a pleasure to see and hear her. We liked each other, and I know she liked what I did. She even said to me once after a show, ‘I thought I was good, and then I heard you.’ Which is crazy, as I would never think that. It was her way of winking at me, the way likeminded artists communicate with each other, a way to let the other know one was a secret fan.”

Then, entirely unexpectedly, Mesterhazy died in his sleep, mere days after his 59th birthday. Though consumed by grief, Murphy and his manager Jean-Pierre Leduc became more determined than ever to make the recording.

Serendipitously, Leduc remembered that Darrel Sheinman at Gearbox Records was looking to add Murphy works to his catalogue. He’d been introduced to the label by British writer Andrew Cartmel. Reimaged as a salute to Horn and Mesterhazy, and with good timing around the Exit O Jazz Festival, where the much of the band were together, the two gave birth to the EP project, with JeanPierre producing the session Stateside, and Darrel producing the record in the UK. “There were,” says Leduc, “signs from above that lit the road for us.” Mesterhazy was a longtime resident of Cape May, New Jersey, where the love of his life, Vicki Watson, owns the Merion Inn. At the funeral, Leduc met Bob Fowler, Mesterhazy’s great friend and first choice as engineer for the EP, who heartily embraced the project’s expanded intent. Watson offered up the Inn, transforming it into a makeshift studio, and a well timed trans Atlantic meeting closed the circle.

“The icing on the cake,” says Leduc, “was two musicians who were already scheduled to be in town for the Cape May Jazz Fest: Steve Williams, Shirley’s drummer of 25 years, and [bassist] Curtis Lundy, also an old friend.” To round out the trio, and replace Mesterhazy, Leduc chose the gifted young pianist Alex Minasian and invited German trumpet master Till Brönner to play on “Get Out of Town” and “But Beautiful.” A lifelong Murphy devotee who was, literally and figuratively, instrumental in shaping the recent Murphy masterpieces Once to Every Heart and Love Is What Stays, Bron̈ ner enthusiastically agreed, noting that, “Mark inspires me to play in a way I’ve never played before. He can help bring out the ultimate truth about one’s self, and that is the greatest giftof all.”

An EP seems an ideal format for this valentine, because with Murphy, as with Horn, quality matters much more than quantity. There was always a hushed grandeur about Horn, and a sense of intimate secrets shared. These same traits define much of Murphy’s work, and are especially evident across these four exquisitely rendered tracks, particularly his poignant, twilit “Here’s to Life.” As Williams so sagely observes, “What a beautiful duet record Mark and Shirley could have made.... I know Shirley heard us, and somewhere George is smiling!”