Morphine Leader Mark Sandman, 46, Remembered

LOS ANGELES-Mark Sandman, the late leader of the Boston trio Morphine, favored economy in all things, and that sensibility brought uncommon rigor to his band's out-of-the-ordinary sound.
Sandman, 46, collapsed and died during a July 4 Morphine performance at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Italy, near Rome. According to a spokeswoman for the band, Sandman suffered a heart attack. No autopsy is planned.
Sandman, who played a conventional four-string bass during his 1986-91 tenure with the Boston band Treat Her Right, began playing a unique two-stringed axe with a slide after he formed Morphine. In a 1995 interview with Billboard, he said that he was inspired by Middle Eastern and African instrumentalists: "It suddenly just sort of dawned on me that every string has every note."
In another Billboard interview in 1997, he discussed his pared-down lyric writing, which was plainly inspired by the lean style of hard-boiled novelists like Jim Thompson and Raymond Chandler, whom Sandman admired.
"I try to reduce the words to the heart of the matter and let the music do the talking," said Sandman. "If I could get it down to one [word], I'd feel accomplished."
"He was a visionary," says Lenny Waronker, chief executive at DreamWorks Records, which co-released Morphine's last studio album. "He invented a sound that was unique. He was one of a kind; he was uncompromising. It might be a clich to call someone the real thing, because too many say that these days, but in his case it's the truth. He was truly the real deal."
Sandman first gained attention in Treat Her Right, a bluesy Boston combo led by singer/guitarist David Champagne. The group, which recorded two albums for RCA and one for Cambridge, Mass.-based indie Rounder Records, introduced Sandman's husky singing and skewed writing approach to a national audience.
After Treat Her Right disbanded, Sandman recruited tenor and baritone saxophonist Dana Colley (formerly with the Boston group the Collers) and drummer Jerome Deupree to form Morphine. The band released its debut, "Good," on the local indie label Accurate in 1991; the album received wider exposure and acclaim when Salem, Mass.-based Rykodisc rereleased it the following year.
Arriving at the height of grunge's commercial breakthrough, Morphine offered an alternative to the Seattle-bred music's aggression. The guitar-less trio rejected hard-rock power for slow-burning, jazz-laced atmospherics, referred to in some quarters as "beat noir"; vocalist Sandman was a droll, pithy storyteller in an allusive, streetwise mode. Literate and strikingly original, the band became an instant critics' favorite.
Drummer Billy Conway, who had played with Sandman in Treat Her Right, replaced Deupree in 1992. The group released two more albums on Rykodisc, "Cure For Pain" (1993) and "yes" (1995), to steadily increasing critical acclaim and sales. The group's music was also featured in such films as "Spanking The Monkey" and "Get Shorty."
In 1996, Rykodisc and DreamWorks Records struck a North American joint-venture deal, which saw Morphine's fourth album, "Like Swimming," released under both labels' logos in 1997.
A Rykodisc spokeswoman says that Sandman delivered the finished tapes for a live album to the label. The set, "Morphine Live," is scheduled for an Oct. 12 release by the label, but the spokeswoman says that the title and release date both could change. The album is not part of the DreamWorks joint venture.
Waronker is uncertain about the status of a new Morphine studio album. "I know [Sandman] was at work over the last few weeks and apparently had a tape he wanted me to hear . . . There's stuff there. We'll just have to see."
Sandman is survived by his parents, Bob and Tel Sandman; his sister, Martha Holmes; his grandmother Goldie Conway; and his longtime companion, Sabine Hrechdakian.
A private service for friends and family was scheduled for July 9 in the Boston area. In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that contributions be made to the Mark Sandman Music Education Fund; donations will benefit music education programs in Cambridge public schools. Contributions may be mailed to Morphine, P.O. Box 382085, Cambridge, Mass. 02238.