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Singers and musicians who are not famous often muse about meeting and performing with legends of music, jazz, etc etc… It may have been in a subjective context that I had a dialogue with my best buddy, Mike Mersch about a concert I was to put on in Feb 2011 with my big band. This concert was to be held at Trinity Presbyterian Church Venice, Fl. (A church with great affinity and compatibility to the jazz idiom.) Ultimately, although I didn’t realize it yet, this church was to put it’s venue where it’s mouth is as it were and give me the venue gratis to effect an idea that began to brew in both my mind and Mike’s.
At the time, we had no idea how flawlessly this would all turn out in everyone’s favor. Thus, we, (Mike and I) began to follow our muse! I have produced some major concerts up in the Northeast and I can vividly recall the jumble of logistics that all have to fall into place to bring something of this magnitude to viable fruition. At some point in our dialogue, Mike proposed the possibility of bringing Mark Murphy up to this area to perform his vocal magic. Mike/I began to have brain sessions as to how to go about it. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through (as I envisioned in my mind’s eye) this maze of things to do to make it all happen, i.e. raising corp. funds, contacting my data base of loyal followers, creating and selling tickets, promotion, press releases, arranging for Mark to come up here to Florida, picking him up and delivering him back to the airport, et al. At this point, I have to shoot out kudos to Mark’s fan base who rallied to the cause as it were, (buying Mark’s airfare, Caretaking, volunteering.) This was a formidable task indeed!! In retrospect, I’m still in awe that all things seemed to fall into place and the result was two very animated concerts for Mark with an underpinning of historic content. It turned out to be a career achievement event for Mark for seven decades of service to jazz and it was sponsored by the prestigious Jazz Foundation Of America, (Wendy Oxenhorn, Exec. Dir.) No one in jazz deserves this honor more. I guess what I’ve learned from all this is that spontaneous and serendipitous events can create the most compelling results when you’re shooting for the moon. The frosting is the fruit of our labor thus:A book by Mike Mersch on Mark Murphy’s life soon to be published, and two keepsake musical discs, of the concerts, (A DVD and a CD of this historic event.) (Avail. For purchase! Email George W Carroll @: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )
