Peter Murray profile picture

Peter Murray

About Me


("LATE NIGHT SONGS" CD IS NOW AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM...WITH DIGITAL DOWNLOADS ON DIGSTATION.COM)
Peter Murray is an independent musician currently living in Pittsburgh. He grew up both improvising Jazz and performing the Classical repertoire of Western piano, studying the latter under Bernhard Weiser at the University of Minnesota and ultimately obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Piano Performance in 1987 before electing to retire from public music performance in order to pursue a “second” career in Psychiatry.
Early in his musical career, Murray performed with a number of notable Jazz figures, including Dizzy Gillespie, Thad Jones, Phil Woods, Louis Bellson, Eric Kamau Grávátt, Bill Berg, Roberta Davis, Bill Evans and many others. He was the pianist for the Univerisity of Minnesota Jazz Ensemble I for four years, performed the music of Rodgers, Hart & Hammerstein with the Minnesota Orchestra, and of Scott Joplin and Duke Ellington with Gunther Schüller. He recorded for National Public Radio and also played annual solo piano Classical recitals from age 8 through 22, having started to play by ear at age 3; his repertoire included such pieces as Bach-Busoni Organ Chorale Prelude transcriptions, the Haydn Sonata No. 62 in E flat, Schumann’s Carnavale, the Chopin Barcarolle and the great Piano Sonata (1945-46) of Elliott Carter. He rounded out his exploration of improvisation by studying the Classical music of India with Ustad Hafeez Ahmed Khan, also studying the Tabla Drums with Ustad Sadakat Hussein Khan when the masters were Artists in Residence at the University of Minnesota.
Murray comes out of musical "retirement" now to bring his unique musical language to everyone who enjoys the richness and depth, melodiousness and emotionality that the solo piano can offer. The songs he has recorded in Late Night Songs are all mainstream Jazz standards, yet the sound of his improvised orchestrations fuse elements from all the genres in which he trained. The end result is an evocative, personal and compelling music that doesn’t sound like Jazz or Classical or Indian so much as it just sounds ...human.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 26/01/2007
Band Website: www.petermurraymusic.com
Band Members: Peter Murray, solo piano
Influences: Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Bill Evans and his last trio, Elliott Carter, Chopin, Beethoven, Bach, Rodrigo, Schumann, Liszt, Dizzy Gillespie, Thad Jones, Phil Woods, Bernhard Weiser, Frank Bencriscutto, Bill Berg, Archie Dean Walker III, Roger Dumas, Ralph Campagna, Ian Anderson, Chaka Khan, Keith Jarrett, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, Joni Mitchell, Al Jarreau, Maurice Ravel, George Crumb, Rolf Gidlow, Bernhard Weiser, Pete Krogseng, Craig Taborn, Barbara Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Artur Rubenstein, Jeff Beck, Bobby Crea, Eric Kamau Gravatt, Billy Barber, Luciana Souza, Jaco Pastorius, Klaus Tennstedt, Sarah Vaughn, Debbie Duncan, Leah Bernstein...
Record Label: unsigned
Type of Label: Unsigned

My Blog

TECHNICAL NOTES: RECORDING THE PIANO

Several people have asked me how I got that piano sound on "late night songs"...so here it is:First of all, this was not a studio recording and the playing was not "composed". All of the music was im...
Posted by on Thu, 15 Mar 2007 11:23:00 GMT

PRESS RELEASE SET FOR FEB. 14th!!

Hey, have to first thank all of you who responded to the pre-release of late night songs with such personal and generous feedback...it's really been heartening to see so many of you find a place in yo...
Posted by on Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:19:00 GMT