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Bleeding Gums Murphy
African-American blues saxophonist from the long-running animated Fox TV show The Simpsons. His character (voiced by Ron Taylor and Daryl L. Coley) was introduced in 1990. He penned the "I Never Had an Italian Suit Blues" and could be found at the Springfield club, The Jazz Hole.
His mentor was Blind Willie Witherspoon. He had one album in the late '50s or early '60s, Sax on the Beach, tragically the same title as a John Tesh release and had a guest appearance on The Cosby Show as one of the kids' many, many jazz-playing grandfathers.
His character was killed off in the "Round Springfield" episode (30 April 1995), which also outlined most of his backstory.
Murphy makes a surprise appearance in the "Whiskey Business" episode (05/05/2013), playing a saxophone jam at club The Jazz Hole; but it turns out only to be a "Tupac-at-Coachella"-style hologram. This infuriates fan and protege Lisa Simpson, who sees it as exploitation, and she protests the record company who did it, and they send real jazz legend Sonny Rollins to get her to stop, but he turns out to be a hologram also.
