Spencer Murphy

Murphy graduated from Jamesville-DeWitt High School in 2006 before attending SUNY Purchase, where in 2010 he earned a degree in jazz studies.^[1]

Murphy had an extended residency at Smalls Jazz Club from 2007-2017, leading a quintet that included Tivon Pennicott, Stacy Dillard, John Chin, and Lawrence Leathers.^[2] In the same period, he featured or was featured with Joel Frahm, Melissa Aldana, Dayna Stephens, Ari Hoenig, Emmett Cohen, and Johnny O'Neal.^[3]

While a student at SUNY Purchase, Murphy met Gabriel Garzon-Montano, with whom he co-wrote and recorded Mokaad's Booty EP (2012). He played bass with Garzon-Montano's subsequent solo project through 2015, performing at South by Southwest, as well as opening for Lenny Kravitz's Strut World Tour.^[4] Murphy co-wrote "Sour Mango," a single from Garzon-Montano's Jardín (2017). In 2020, Murphy appeared as a bassist on Nick Hakim's Will This Make Me Good?, reprising this role a year later alongside long-time collaborators Onyx Collective, on Hakim's co-release with saxophonist Roy Nathanson, Small Things,^[5] as well as his 2023 release Cometa.

In October of 2021, he presented "GRASS," an original work for poetry and music at The Owl in Brooklyn, which featured Bartlett, Oren Bloedow, Taja Cheek, and Craig Weinrib.^[6][7] The same month, he originated the bass chair in the premiere of Only an Octave Apart, starring Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo, with music direction from Thomas Bartlett and arrangements by Nico Muhly.^[8] In January of 2022, Murphy accompanied Bond and Roth Costanzo as they performed selections from the show with the New York Philharmonic, as well as backing the duo in a performance on NPR Tiny Desk.^[9]

In August of 2022, he performed with Helado Negro and Silvana Estrada at Central Park Summerstage,^[10] celebrating the release of Doris Muñoz biopic Mija.^[11] The following year, he appeared at the 35th Annual Tibet House Benefit at Carnegie Hall, performing with Marc Anthony Thompson, Zsela Thompson, and Scorchio Quartet as Chocolate Genius Inc.^[12] In 2024, Chocolate Genius Inc. headlined Big Ears Festival, with a band consisting of both Thompsons, along with Murphy, Marc Ribot, John Medeski, Claude Coleman Jr, and Daniel Aged.^[13]

With Isaiah Barr and Lucien Smith, Murphy is the co-founder of FOOD, a label project named in honor of legendary artist-run restaurant FOOD of 1970's SoHo.^[14]