Jones/This is Hip, Foreword. It's Compromise, don't Bother

As his 2008 Athens concerts made clear, even as an old man Mark Murphy was a formidable performer of vocal jazz. Never comfortable with the compromises made by more commercially successful singers, and celebrating the hipster ethos he had learned from Jack Kerouac, he carved out his own musical path. He mastered the jazz repertoire, its styles and techniques, even as he pushed its boundaries, and profoundly influenced several generations of jazz singers, many of whom became more famous than their mentor.