Chicago native Greg Murphy has been a major contributor to the New York City jazz scene since the 1980s.

After studying and living in New Orleans, Greg moved to New York and began what had become a long association with John Coltrane’s multidirectional drummer, Rashied Ali.  Greg performed and recorded with Ali and his various groups throughout Europe, Canada and the US from 1987 until Rashied passed away in 2009. 

Throughout his career, Greg has performed extensively in the US, France, Ireland, Japan, China, The Philippines and beyond with his own trio and other groups. He’s also worked in New York with Ornette Coleman and in France with Carlos Santana and Archie Shepp. In 2012, Greg recorded the theme song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” for the HBO documentary Redemption, which received a 2013 Academy Award nomination for best documentary short. Bright Idea, his critically acclaimed CD (featuring Jeff “Tain” Watts) was #1 on the JazzWeek charts in February and March of 2019.