Mike Murley: Melody Lingers On

Mike Murley: tenor saxophone; Reg Schwager: guitar; Steve Wallace: bass; Guido Basso: trumpet; Tara Davidson: saxophone

The Shadow of Your Smile (Webster / Mandel) / By Myself (Dietz / Schwartz) / You Can't Go Home Again (Sebesky) / No Regrets (Murley) / You Don't Know What Love Is (Raye / DePaul) / Never Will I Marry (Loesser) / I Remember You (Mercer / Schertzinger) / Theme from "The Getaway" (Jones) / Stanstill (Murley) / Embraceable You - (Gershwin /Gershwin) / I've Never Been in Love Before (Loesser) / Nest of the Loon (Murley)

Mike Murley's critically-acclaimed recordings have placed him at the forefront of Canada's jazz scene for more than a decade. Since winning the Juno award in 1991 for his Two Sides CD, Murley has appeared on eight other Juno award-winning recordings and received over twenty nominations for other albums as both a leader and a sideman. Here he is captured in performance at Toronto’s Glenn Gould Studio, in an evening of lyrical standards, joined by his colleagues in the Mike Murley Trio, (guitarist REG SCHWAGER and the extraordinary bassist STEVE WALLACE) and by some special guests. GUIDO BASSO is one of Canada’s most charismatic and influential jazz musicians, whether playing trumpet, flugelhorn or harmonica. TARA DAVIDSON is a former protégé of Mike Murley’s, a winner of the “Emerging Artist Award,” at Toronto’s Distillery Jazz Festival. Adding a rich texture to this disc is a 12-piece string orchestra, with LENNY SOLOMON as Concertmaster and RICK WILKINS (of Boss Brass fame) as conductor.
All of the arrangements were created by Mike Murley and Reg Schwager, specially for this disc. The tracks present a lyrical mix of standards, varied in tempo and mood, ranging from classics to film scores to a couple of Murley originals. Murley weaves seamlessly through the tracks leaving room for the guests to share the spotlight. He sets the standard with this evening of standards, where the melody will linger on, long into the night.