La Mesa People

Crooning For The Community

LA MESA -- Occasionally on Friday afternoons, when a jazz trio is giving forth at Cosmos Coffee Cafe, a tall and jovial man is summoned out of the audience of regulars and to the stage.

Suddenly, the room fills with with the kind of measured, stylized voice that jazz requires.

Passersby stop in the street and peek in. It's a touch of Paris right here in La Mesa.

The regulars just smile and know that "Marty" is at it again.

Marty is Martin Murphy, a man who, in his own maturing years, has been quietly building the kind of life in music not fueled by fame and recordings, but one that creates devotees one by one.

Murphy, who worked in theater and film for many years, is dedicating much of his retirement to taking every opportunity to enrich the lives of retirement and nursing home residents throughout La Mesa and San Diego County. He is funny and engaging and sings classics from a wide range of decades, but the demands of the jazz standards he can handle are particularly notable. Jazz isn't easy. Marty can do it. Without amplification.

At times, he bring his own recorded music and presents an hour long show at senior centers, but on a recent evening Murphy  paired with long-time friend and accompanist Gloria Smith whose own long performing experience presents an extremely high quality combination for the senior audience. (See video above).

"We specialize in the senior centers, but we are available to appear at other venues, anyone with an audience of folks who enjoy classical jazz and popular music," Murphy says. "Gloria and I know our way around the stage --  this is not our first rodeo.''

Murphy has called La Mesa home for more than half a century, living with his wife, Monita, whose family reaches back even further into La Mesa's past.

Marty’s career in entertainment began in 1949 when he sang a solo in Pat O’Brian’s Hollywood stage show. Marty has been singing ever since. Marty has been involved as a singer and actor in local productions, both as a professional and in amateur community theater.

Marty performed from 1967 to 1979 in the annual La Jolla Village Vaudeville show. He then wrote, cast, performed in and directed his own vaudeville shows for a number of years.

An active Screen Actor’s Guild member, he has been featured in a number of feature films, appeared in scores of industrial films and commercials since 1988. He has appeared in many San Diego area theater companies, including the Hahn Cosmopolitan, Gaslamp, Sweet Tooth Comedy Theater and the La Jolla Stage Company.

While pursuing the arts, he also had a life full of professional experiences in other lines of work. His official resume lists:

1. Navy pilot 62-67
2. Stock broker 67-69
3. Insurance underwriter 69-70
4. Auto wrecker 70-72
5. Glazier 72-74
6. Real estate broker (agent 74-76) (broker 76-date)
7. Actor/entertainer ( amateur 1949-date; professionally 89-date)
8. Book publisher 74-80 off & on
9. Land developer 76-86
10. Film producer 89-date
11. Ordained minister 03-date
12. Treatment center counselor (drugs & alcohol) 86-87
13. Video product developer 99-08
14. Screenplay writer 03
15. House builder 1988
16. Personal coach (thefreedomstep.com)
17. Book author, The Mind Whisperer

Marty can be contacted via e-mail at martymurphy@cox.net