Tamara Murphy, versatile bassist and composer, is known for her solid groove playing and lyrical soloing ability. An esteemed composer, Tamara was awarded the inaugural PBS Young Elder of Jazz Commission for the creation and presentation of the work “Big Creatures and Little Creatures” with her ensemble, Murphy’s Law in 2011. This work was released in 2012 and was nominated for The Age Genre Music Awards and Murphy’s Law was also nominated for an Australian Jazz Bell Award in the same year.
Tamara performs regularly with many leading contemporary jazz and pop musicians in Australia. Her performance and recording credits include: Allan Browne, Andrea Keller, Stephen Magnusson, George Coleman Jr., Grace Knight, Bernie McGann, Joe Chindamo, Martin Martini, Lanie Lane, Lady Rizo (US), Ben Caplan (CA), Sarah McKenzie, Casey Donovan, and Christine Anu along with many others. She has also toured internationally in New York, the UK, Europe and Asia.
Tamara talked to Kickarts about her career as a bass player and her latest project, Spirograph Studies, a quartet featuring the talents of Luke Howard/Sam Keeves (piano), Fran Swinn (guitar), James McLean (drums). They performed their cinematic style of improvisation at the Courthouse Youth Arts theatre in September this year, before heading off on their Kindness, Not Courtesy album launch tour.