By Brenna Eller
McPherson jazz pioneer Loren McMurray lives on through his music. That was the original idea behind the reissue album done by the Co-Producers of the project.
It was announced on Friday, Nov. 10 that the reissued album of McMurray’s music and story has just been nominated for the 2024 GRAMMY for Best Historical Album.
In July of 2023, Loren McMurray’s reissue album, “The Moaniest Moan of Them All” was released by Archeophone Records. The project was a group effort done by Co-Producers, Meagan Hennessey and Richard Martin of Archeophone Records, Colin Hancock of Semper Phonograph Company, and notes/biography Co-written by Mark Berresford of the UK and Colin Hancock.
Hancock thanked the family at Archeophone Records first for taking on projects like his.
“They’re a beacon of light in an industry that normally turns their nose on anything recorded before microphones,” Hancock said. “Shoutout to my co-producers Rich Martin for making Mac sing again with his amazing restorations of the original 78s and Meagan Hennessey for curating and creating the amazing graphics, and my co-Author Mark Berresford for his pioneering research on Mac and hard work in general making the world aware of this music!”
Hancock also gave shoutouts to the many people in his life who helped him with the project along the way, including those who encouraged him to pitch the idea to Archeophone Records, the people who shared photos and information about McMurray, and those who have been a support in his life such as his partner Shelly Crossland and his parents. Lastly, he thanked Loren McMurray for “daring to take the saxophone where no one else took it before!”
Archeophone Records also shared their excitement for the nomination, thanking Hancock as Co-Producer and Berresford as Co-Author of the album notes, and also congratulated their fellow nominees of the GRAMMY nomination for Best Historical Album: Michael Graves, Cheryl Pawelski, Steve Berkowitz, Jeff Place, Matt Sullivan, and John Baldwin.
The other albums nominated (#78 on GRAMMY nomination list) were:
Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997) The Bootleg Series, Vol. 17
Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick 1958-1971
Words & Music May 1965 – Deluxe Edition
Written in Their Soul: The Stax Songwriter Demos
For more about the album release and the research done by Hancock and Berresford, read below:
