Love Is What Stays is a 2007 studio album by Mark Murphy, arranged by Nan Schwartz and Till Brönner.
For Murphy's second Verve album, he is accompanied by figures including Lee Konitz, Don Grusin, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Chuck Loeb and Sebastian Merk.
Contents
Reception
The AllMusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album four stars and said that Love Is What Stays "is a deeply satisfying and, in places, even astonishing reflection on time and its passage. Memory, reverie, regrets, victories, hipster mysticism, and wonderfully canny theatrically poetic wordplay all come to bear in these songs. It is more adventurous and downright wily in its aims than anyone could have hoped for." Jurek says that music fans looking "for true authenticity and artfully made American popular music, should snap this up as quickly as possible. Time will be the judge, but Love Is What Stays may become a Murphy masterpiece and - let's face it - the man embodies the very essence of "hip." And always will."
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings review assigns a rating of ***(*), meaning "an excellent record, with some exceptional music" which is "only kept out of the front rank by some minor reservations". Richard Cook calls Murphy's performances "clever, worldly wise, emotionally unguarded singing of a very high order", but says, "The only reason to dislike it is that the band sounds cold and not as smart as the boss".
Christopher Louden praised the album in his JazzTimes review. He wrote, "Musically speaking, Mark Murphy couldn’t misstep in a minefield on a moonless night. Throughout his half-century progression from startlingly innovative hipster to sage elder statesman, Murphy has never stumbled, never faltered and never failed to continuously raise the bar for every jazz vocalist in the business . . . the vocal vigor and elasticity of his youth may be gone, but the weather-beaten weariness that now replaces them is just as artful and enticing".
Track listing
"Stolen Moments" (Mark Murphy, Oliver Nelson) - 2:40
"Angel Eyes" (Earl Brent, Matt Dennis) - 8:06
"My Foolish Heart" (Ned Washington, Victor Young) - 5:14
"So Doggone Lonesome" (Johnny Cash) - 4:51
"What If" (Guy Berryman, Jonny Buckland, Will Champion, Chris Martin) - 7:18
"The Interview" (Murphy) - 5:41
"Once Upon a Summertime" (Eddie Barclay, Michel Legrand, Eddy Marnay, Johnny Mercer) - 5:33
"Stolen Moments (1st Reprise)" - 1:03
"Love Is What Stays" (Till Brönner, Murphy) - 6:41
"Stolen Moments (2nd Reprise)" - 1:22
"Too Late Now" (Burton Lane, Alan Jay Lerner) - 7:54
"Blue Cell Phone" (Murphy) - 3:04
"Did I Ever Really Live" (Albert Hague, Allan Sherman) - 4:39
Personnel
Performance
Mark Murphy - vocals, arranger
Arne Schuhmann - accordion, horn engineer, mixing, rhythm engineer, vocal engineer
Christian VonKaphengst - arranger, double bass
Till Brönner - arranger, brass, fender rhodes, flugelhorn, producer, rhythm arrangements, trumpet
Nan Schwartz - arranger, conductor, orchestral arrangements, producer
Frank Chastenier - arranger, piano
Peter Pühn - double bass
Gregor Schaetz
Dávid Adorján - cello
Claudia Benker
Mathias Donderer
Andreas Grünkorn
Andreas Lichtschlag
Adele Schneider Bitter
Gregoire Peters - bass clarinet, flute, tenor saxophone
Matthias Schorn - clarinet
Joachim Welz
Sebastian Merk - drums
Don Grusin - fender rhodes
Kornelia Brandkamp - flute
Frauke Leopold