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Paul Murphy

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Paul Murphy was born in 1949 and is an American percussionist, bandleader and composer. He began on drums at a very young age and at six met Gene Krupa, with whom he later also took lessons, as he did with Louis Bellson and with Joseph Levitt, the principal percussionist of the National Symphony Orchestra. At sixteen he played in the Washington area with Billy Taylor, the bassist of Duke Ellington, who introduced him to the music of the pianist Cecil Taylor. On his advice he moved to San Francisco, where he built up a band of his own and met Cecil Taylor and the saxophonist Jimmy Lyons.

Music and breakthrough

On Lyons's suggestion he went to New York. There he managed Ali's Alley, a club run by the drummer Rashied Ali, and played and recorded with Lyons's groups and with his own quintet. In New York he moved in both experimental jazz and punk rock. After Lyons's early death in 1986 he played for a while in Las Vegas, and in San Francisco he formed Trio Hurricane with the saxophonist Glenn Spearman and the bassist William Parker. Since 1990 he has lived around Washington again, where he has worked with, among others, the pianists Joel Futterman and Larry Willis.

Influence

Reviewers called him a fluid, compositionally minded master drummer who uses all parts of the drum kit with hands, brushes, mallets and sticks. Murphy is known above all for his small jazz groups and his long collaboration with Lyons.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a recording of Murphy with one of his small groups, for example from the album Excursions. Notice how fluidly he moves from drum to cymbal and how lightly and quickly he can play.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists