OPEN POST: Manor Music Monday With The Mesmerizing Rose Murphy!

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Greetings music luvuhs, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Mondays, today with a singer who's guaranteed to work you over like the world's best anti-depressant. No, for reals. Feeling down in the dumpity-doo and want to feel happy? Feeling happy but want to feel happier? Then this is the gal for you. Tonight only at the Manor's exclusive "Touch-A, Touch-A, Touch Me" lounge and dinette, DJ Li'l Scratch will be spinning all of her tunes, and just wait, you'll be giggling and dancing and drinking and doing who knows what-all because if it. Ready? Make way for "Chee-Chee!"


Rose "Chee-Chee" Murphy, to be specific, who had a happy, trilling voice you won't soon forget. If you've only heard her sing a few numbers, you might think her vocals are gimmicky and perhaps not worth a full album, much less a whole bevy of them.

Think again. However she did the voodoo she do, she found incredible variety in her high, birdlike voice, complete with chirps, percussive sounds and itsy-bitsy giggles. She was well known in the 1940s as "The Girl With The Pale Pink Voice," which is cute, but doesn't really capture the skill and warmth she brings to each individual song. Years ago when I first played a compilation CD of her songs, I was stunned; I couldn't believe I'd listened to all the tracks straight through. That's a lot of Chee-Chee! And I wanted more. Here's just a taste:


See what I mean? I know you're like, "That was dee-lightful, but more?" Oh, yes, more is more in the case of Rose, I promise. She's one of the most eccentric, delightfully clever, technically virtuosic and memorable figures in all of vocal jazz, I think, and often overlooked because her style was so defiantly quirky. And get this, she was a highly accomplished jazz pianist, too. 

When Count Basie first heard her sing, as legend goes, he could not stop laughing. And from there she started her career as Basie's "intermission pianist," a duty she performed for other legendary big bands. Years later, she scored her first big hit on the airwaves with "Busy Line," where she used her voice to mimic the vocal "brring, brring" of a telephone. Even Princess Margaret was a fan. 

From there her popular recording and radio career flourished and she could frequently be found playing piano and singing on TV, like on "The Ed Sullivan Show." But it was club work which really cemented her legend. She was beloved on the New York cabaret and jazz circuit, performing at legendary venues like The Cookery and Upstairs at the Downstairs where she was usually backed by jazz bassist Slam Stewart. She also spent decades touring heavily to packed houses across Europe and the UK.

Why were the houses always packed? Dive into this classic LP below, which highlights not only her singing, but her masterly skills at the piano. And try to listen to just one, I dare you!


What are you listening to this week? DJ Li'l Scratch wants to know.
Till next time...purr, bitches, purr! 🐾

Photo Credits: Getty Images, Verve Record, United Artists

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