While a student at SUNY Purchase, Murphy met Gabriel Garzon-Montano, with whom he co-wrote and recorded Mokaad's Booty EP (2012). He played bass with Garzon-Montano's subsequent solo project through 2015, performing at South by Southwest, as well as opening for Lenny Kravitz's Strut World Tour.[4] Murphy co-wrote "Sour Mango," a single from Garzon-Montano's Jardín (2017). In 2020, Murphy appeared as a bassist on Nick Hakim's Will This Make Me Good?, reprising this role a year later alongside long-time collaborators Onyx Collective, on Hakim's co-release with saxophonist Roy Nathanson, Small Things.[5]
In October of 2021, he presented "GRASS," an original work for poetry and music at The Owl in Brooklyn, which featured Bartlett, Oren Bloedow, Taja Cheek, and Craig Weinrib.[6][7] The same month, he originated the bass chair in the premiere of Only an Octave Apart, starring Justin Vivian Bond and Anthony Roth Costanzo, with music direction from Thomas Bartlett and arrangements by Nico Muhly.[8] In January of 2022, Murphy accompanied Bond and Roth Costanzo as they performed selections from the show with the New York Philharmonic, as well as backing the duo in a performance on NPR Tiny Desk.[9]
With Isaiah Barr and Lucien Smith, Murphy is the co-founder of FOOD, a label project named in honor of legendary artist-run restaurant FOOD of 1970's SoHo.[14]
