| Crazy Rhythm: His Debut Recordings | |
| Type: | compilation |
| Artist: | Mark Murphy |
| Cover: | Crazy Rhythm His Debut Recordings.jpg |
| Released: | 1999 |
| Recorded: | 1956–1957 |
| Genre: | Vocal jazz |
| Length: | 59:58 |
| Label: | Decca |
| Producer: | Orrin Keepnews |
Crazy Rhythm is a 1999 compilation of singer Mark Murphy's Decca label recordings in 1956–1957.
Crazy Rhythm collects all but four of Murphy's recordings from his first release for Decca, Meet Mark Murphy (The Singing "M"), and all of his second release, Let Yourself Go.[1]
Under producer Milt Gabler's direction Murphy recorded with Decca from 1955 to 1957. Many of the recordings have never been released in any form. Author Peter Jones' discography documents 60 unreleased Decca recordings. Murphy recorded the tracks for Meet Mark Murphy with arranger Ralph Burns in 1956 and Let Yourself Go in 1957. According to Murphy, Burns made very few changes to the arrangements Murphy himself conceived for the recordings.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes, "the singer wasn't the cutting-edge risk-taker he would evolve into in the 1960s. The young Murphy heard on this CD is a likable crooner with a strong passion for Mel Torme".He singles out for praise "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Exactly Like You".[2]
Scott Yanow recommends the release in his book The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide.[3]
Will Friedwald said that the taken together albums made during his early recording career from 1956 to 1960 "reveal a young singer with a strong, dark, attractive voice, with a lot of good ideas and an obvious commitment to the jazz idiom-but one who stops just short of having a sound and a style of his own".Friedwald wrote, "As Murphy himself noted, the audience for these songs just wasn't his, and vice versa-even though he succeeded in doing something aesthetically interesting and indeed hip with material that no one would have thought could lend itself to such a treatment".[4]
Orrin Keepnews – producer