Obituary. Author Albert Murray dies at age 97

One of the most influential American writers on blues and jazz culture, Albert Murray (*12 May 1916) of Alabama, died on August 18 in his Harlem home. He is survived by his wife Mozelle and their daughter Michelle.

He was a close friend of author Ralph Ellison, who wrote probably the best jazz novel of all times Invisible Man. Murray and Ellison met at the Tuskegee Insitute in the 1930s, then one of the few institutions of higher learning open to African-Americans. There he also met another student, Mozelle Menefee, who became his wife in 1941. On campus, he discovered his love for literature, philosophy, pragmatism and the writings of John Dewey and later Kenneth Burke.

After graduation, he joined the Army Air Corps, at the end of the war moved to New York city and studied at New York University with the G.I. bill. From 1951 until 1962 he reenlisted into the Air Force, and the devoted his time to literature. He published his first book at the age of 54. “The Omni-Americans” challenged the militant and separatist views of many black intellectuals in 1970. In his book he insisted on integration and cooperation of the two major races and kept on referring to the many similarities and the universal mixture of attitudes, skills, traditions and most of all musical influenced that described the American. It was music, particularly the blues, that was at the center of his thesis that all Americans had more in common than arguments that could separate them.

Mr. Murray’s theory of the “Blues idiom” then is so profound that I referred to if time and again in my own dissertation on jazz in the novel. Mr. Murray – by the way – was the author of the only jazz novel tetralogy. What started out as a rather private story of his alter ego “Scooter” in the manner of  a coming-of-age-novel with heavy influence on black country life and the blues as a model for personal development in Train Whistle Guitar (1974), continued with Scooter’s experiences in various jazz bands in The Spyglass Tree in 1991. And was followed by the publication of The Seven League Boots (1996) and The Magic Keys (2006).
Albert Murray also published the “autobiography” of Count Basie Good Morning Blues in 1985 and wrote several collections of essays on American culture, the blues, jazz, naturalism in literature and the arts in general such as Stomping the Blues (1976), The Hero and the Blues (1996), South to a Very Old Place (1971) and in 2000 together with John F. Callahan edited “Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray.”
It was good to see that Mr. Murray during the last ten years finally received the honors and recognition he deserved since until the late 1990s both he and his writings went by rather unnoticed by the general public, whereas he was well-known name only in certain American Studies programs. In the last ten years, however, he also became strongly involved in the Jazz at Licoln Center Program together with Stanley Crouch and Wynton Marsalis.

I had the honor of meeting Mr. Murray in his Harlem home in 2000, where I was received most politely even though I only announced my arrival one day in advance. No matter what difficulties he had walking on his balcony, he insisted on showing me all the clubs and hotels where the swing musicians stayed and played in the1940s and 50s from up there. He kept on telling me anecdotes, stories and insights for many hours, and I will never forget that brief visit. Nor will I forget the man or his writings.

There is a very good obituary in the New York Times you may want to read.

Goodbye Mr. Murray and thank you for the inspiration.

Obituary by Dr. A. Ebert