Autistic saxophonist, ethnomusicologist John Murphy R.I.P.

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John Murphy, a saxophonist and ethnomusicologist who led the Division of Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas (UNT) and researched Brazilian traditional and popular music, died on March 8, 2022, in Denton. He was 60.

His death was confirmed by his wife, Genene, who said the cause was complications of kidney cancer.

As he finished his education as a jazz musician at UNT, John discovered his love for teaching and continued his graduate studies at Columbia University with a focus on Cuban and Brazilian music. In 2006, he authored Music in Brazil: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture as part of Oxford University Press's Global Music series. In 2008, a Portuguese translation of his dissertation was published in Brazil by the Federal University of Minas Gerais. Additionally, John was the author of numerous articles and reviews.

During his nearly thirty-year career as a university educator, first at Western Illinois University and then at UNT, he prioritized teaching, and felt most energized when in the classroom. After his death, colleagues and students offered remembrances online about his influence. "I've never experienced a professor/educator/leader more unanimously beloved by their community," Kara Walton, a jazz vocalist and former student, wrote. "He was kind, thoughtful, honest, fair, hard-working, extremely intelligent, and had a great sense of humor," Alan Baylock, Director of the One O'Clock Lab Band, shared. "I miss him already."

John spent the last eleven years of his career as chair of the Division of Jazz Studies at UNT. He led generational changes in faculty; designed the jazz major for the Doctor of Musical Arts in Performance; and promoted a culture of diversity, inclusion, and openness to new curricular ideas.

He drew on his lifelong love for language when he became fluent in Brazilian Portuguese during his research in the small towns of the sugar-producing region north of Recife, Brazil. He felt equally at ease chatting with sugarcane workers and leading discussions in his classes.

Among John's final accomplishments at UNT was his co-founding of the Neurodiversity Initiative. In 2019, he started being open about his autism diagnosis in 2014. In doing so he received support from his administrators and the faculty and staff in Jazz Studies, for which he remained grateful.