John Murphy
Chair of Jazz Studies/Jazz History
/ (940) 565-4344
John Murphy, an ethnomusicologist and saxophonist, joined the UNT Jazz Studies faculty in 2001. During the 2008-9 academic year served as interim chair of Jazz Studies, and began a three-year term as chair in Fall 2009. He is the author of Music in Brazil (Oxford University 2006) and Cavalo-marinho pernambucano (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil University Press, 2008) and has published articles on jazz improvisation, Brazilian traditional and popular music, Cuban music in New York, and college teaching. His most recent publication is "Beyond the Improvisation Class: Learning to Improvise in a University Jazz Studies Program," in Musical Improvisation: Art, Education, and Society (2009), edited by Bruno Nettl and Gabriel Solis. He has held Fulbright (1990-91) and National Endowment for the Humanities (2000-2001) fellowships for research in Brazil.
While a student at the University of North Texas, Murphy earned two degrees (B.M., jazz studies performance, 1984; M.M., music theory, 1986), played in the One O'Clock Lab Band (1984-85), and free-lanced in Dallas-Ft. Worth. He then earned two degrees at Columbia University (M.A. & Ph.D., ethnomusicology) and played Latin music in the New York area. He plays frequently in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.
Murphy teaches jazz history (undergraduate and graduate), jazz styles & analysis (graduate), and jazz research methods (graduate); collaborates with the ethnomusicology area; and teaches at the UNT Small Group Jazz summer workshop. He served as chair of the Division of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology from 2006 to 2008; served the Society for Ethnomusicology as web editor from 1997 to 2002; and taught previously at Western Illinois University.
