John Patrick Murphy

1961 - 2022

John Patrick Murphy

John Murphy, a saxophonist and ethnomusicologist who led the Division of Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas (UNT) and researched Brazilian traditional and popular music, died on March 8, 2022, in Denton. He was 60.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Genene, who said the cause was complications of kidney cancer.

As he finished his education as a jazz musician at UNT, John discovered his love for teaching and continued his graduate studies at Columbia University with a focus on Cuban and Brazilian music. In 2006, he authored Music in Brazil: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture as part of Oxford University Press's Global Music series. In 2008, a Portuguese translation of his dissertation was published in Brazil by the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Additionally, John was the author of numerous articles and reviews.

During his nearly thirty-year career as a university educator, first at Western Illinois University and then at UNT, he prioritized teaching, and felt most energized when in the classroom. After his death, colleagues and students offered remembrances online about his influence. "I've never experienced a professor/educator/leader more unanimously beloved by their community," Kara Walton, a jazz vocalist and former student, wrote. "He was kind, thoughtful, honest, fair, hard-working, extremely intelligent, and had a great sense of humor," Alan Baylock, Director of the One O'Clock Lab Band, shared. "I miss him already."

John spent the last eleven years of his career as chair of the Division of Jazz Studies at UNT. He led generational changes in faculty; designed the jazz major for the Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance; and promoted a culture of diversity, inclusion, and openness to new curricular ideas.

He drew on his lifelong love for language when he became fluent in Brazilian Portuguese during his research in the small towns of the sugar-producing region north of Recife, Brazil. He felt equally at ease chatting with sugarcane workers and leading discussions in his classes.

Among John's final accomplishments at UNT was his co-founding of the Neurodiversity Initiative. In 2019, he started being open about his autism diagnosis in 2014. In doing so he received support from his administrators and the faculty and staff in Jazz Studies, for which he remained grateful.

John Patrick Murphy was born on October 25, 1961, in Baltimore, the sixth of seven children of Charles, a court stenographer for the City of Baltimore, and Angela (O'Brien), a nurse and homemaker. Growing up in Catonsville, Maryland, in a close-knit, fun-loving family, he enjoyed playing sports, exploring Patapsco Valley State Park, and annual vacations in Ocean City, Maryland. He developed his academic and musical gifts with the help of dedicated educators in Baltimore County public schools. His first job was at the Catonsville branch of the county public library. He maintained a love of reading and libraries throughout his life.

Inspired by his schoolteachers and by performances organized by the Left Bank Jazz Society at the Famous Ballroom in Baltimore by jazz greats such as Dexter Gordon, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and Freddie Hubbard, John set out to become a professional musician.

He began playing saxophone in rock and funk bands during high school. After his freshman year at Johns Hopkins University, he transferred to UNT in Denton. Genene, whom he met in 1977, joined him there; they married in 1983.

John earned a bachelor's in Jazz Performance and a master's in Music Theory at UNT. High points of his time at UNT included playing in the One O'Clock Lab Band in 1984-85 and accompanying Ella Fitzgerald in a big band at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas. Encouraged by UNT faculty member Malena Kuss, he earned a master's and doctorate degrees in ethnomusicology at Columbia University in New York. He researched Cuban music in New York and Brazilian traditional music. With Genene and sons Jack and Peter--ages 2 and one month, respectively--he lived in Recife, Brazil, in 1990-91 to complete field research sponsored by a Fulbright grant.

After spending a year writing his dissertation in Mardela Springs, Maryland, with Genene's family, he became a professor at Western Illinois University. The family spent eight years in Macomb, Illinois, where small-town life surrounded by friends was an ideal setting for raising their children.

Sponsored by a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship, John and family, which now included daughter Gillian, returned to Recife in 2000 for a sabbatical year of field research on Brazilian traditional and popular music. As part of his research, he learned button accordion in the forró style. He was then hired by the UNT College of Music to teach jazz history, analysis, and research in the Division of Jazz Studies, and the family moved to Denton in the fall of 2001.

At UNT, John served as chair of the Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology from 2006-8. In 2008, he became chair of the Division of Jazz Studies, a role he held until his retirement. While serving as chair, he maintained a full teaching schedule. He was devoted to his students and colleagues. He happily spent hours helping students develop as artists, researchers, writers, and people. Nothing pleased him more than seeing students succeed, no matter their chosen career path, and supporting fellow faculty members as they achieved artistic and pedagogical success.

After he was diagnosed with stage IV kidney cancer in October 2019, John was treated by Dr. James Brugarolas, Director of the Kidney Cancer Program at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern in Dallas.

John is survived by his wife Genene and children Jack, Peter and his wife Allie Timken Murphy, and Gillian and her husband Fábio Valenti Possamai; siblings Diane Warner, Mary Rutter, Betty Flerlage, and Paul Murphy; and siblings-in-law Eric Mulholland and Carrie Murphy. He is pre-deceased by his parents, Angela and Charlie, and siblings Charlie and Steve.

He enjoyed spending time with family, performing on tenor saxophone in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and sailing his Sunfish sailboat on Lake Lewisville. After moving to Denton, he developed an interest in endurance sports, eventually completing seven full marathons, several Olympic-distance triathlons, and many shorter events. He was known for commuting by bicycle and served on the City of Denton's Traffic Safety Commission. In 2013, he began playing Irish traditional music on button accordion and led an Irish music session that met regularly in Denton.

John was a devoted father and husband. An outward sign of the former: he applied his field research skills to documenting his children's lives on video; in retirement, he digitized the tapes and organized them into hundreds of scenes. And of the latter: when he saw how much Genene enjoyed having her hair put in a French braid by a visiting friend in the mid-1990s, he asked the friend to teach him how to do this and did so every morning thereafter.

A memorial service will be held at First United Methodist Church in Denton at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 7, 2022, with an offsite reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to The John Murphy Scholarship Endowment for Jazz Studies at the UNT College of Music so that John's legacy may continue to impact generations of jazz students in perpetuity. You may make a gift to this fund online (in the Area of Support, select "The John Murphy Scholarship Endowment for Jazz Studies": https://one.unt.edu/giving/college-of-music) or by check: list John Murphy Endowment in the memo line and mail to University of North Texas; University Advancement, Gift Administration 1155 Union Circle #311250 Denton, TX 76203.