Greg Murphy

You Remind Me

Whaling City Sound

We last visited with pianist and composer Greg Murphy with his 1991 Cool Water on these pages. While that album celebrated his travels to Africa, this is a heartfelt love letter to his recently passed wife, Nancy. Having studied extensively with the late pianist Ellis Marsalis and played for two decades with Coltrane’s last drummer, Rashied Ali, this is Murphy’s fourth release on the label, and his seventh as a leader. Fronting a new trio and employing a cast of different musicians except for longtime collaborator Frank Lacy, who contributes vocals to three tracks, Murphy also invites special guests: violinist Zach Brock (3 tracks), vocalist Malou Beauvoir (4 tracks) and David Stoller (harp and percussion on “Nights Over Egypt.” Murphy’s trio mates throughout are bassist Obasi Akoto and drummer Steve Johns. Most of the album was recorded at the jazz shrine, Rudy Van Gelder Studios.

Contrary to what might be an initial impression, this is far from a mournful, elegiac album.  Most of the tunes are highly vibrant, even celebratory as in Murphy’s words – “…let’s create the world we want to live in – in the here and now. After darkness comes the cure…This album represents different moments in time on many different levels. What ties everything together in all dimensions, vibrational levels, spaces and time –is LOVE.” Murphy mixes six originals with jazz standards and compositions from Frank Foster, John Coltrane, and others.

The addition of Brock’s violin, first heard in the colorful opening original “After Dark,” and especially when coupled with vocals and harp on “Nights Over Egypt” (Beauvoir and Stoller respectively) and “You Remind Me,” where both Beauvoir and Lacy join, add rare and sumptuous symphonic layers to the customary piano trio  The latter with lyrical assistance from Ernest Bell, is of course dedicated to his Nancy in a celebration of life mode while the rather obvious cover choice, Jimmy Van Heusen’s “Nancy (With the Laughing Face),” a ballad popularized in a sense by John Coltrane, is a tender tribute, rendered by the core trio that explores and paints his wife’s spirit from the serious to the exuberant. As heard here, throughout the album there are remarkably few if any notes that are not uplifting.

The trio navigates tricky rhythms in “Shrimp Fried Rice” and gives an inspired reading to Coltrane’s “Mr. Day.” We hear Murphy’s vibraphone-like keyboard and the choir-like reunion of Beauvoir and Lacy on the David Foster/Jay Graydon “Mornin’.” The two vocalists return for the stirring, jubilant closer, “A Night to Remember.” In between the trio shines on Murphy’s somewhat alternately pensive and unbounded “Takeoff,” Frank Foster’s mid-tempo “Simone” featuring impressive kit work from Johns, and most vividly on Murphy’s “Night Flight,” which stands as the most striking example of group interplay, improvisation, and unrestrained expression on the disc, as they reveal an avant-garde bent, highlighted in part by Akoto’s arco bass and Johns’ sterling drum solo.

This proves yet again that often the best music is born from poignant, heartfelt moments. Immerse yourself in 66 minutes of truly heavenly music. You’ll be rewarded handsomely.

• Jim Hynes

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