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JAZZ AL FRISCO
jack jarrell
There is a gentleman named Murphy who plays trombone in San Francisco. Mr. Murphy also arranges music, repairs automobiles for friends, builds furniture, designs machinery, does interior decorating and is an athlete of no mean ability. In his spare time, he listens to records. Rumor has it that he sleeps occasionally, but this bit of hearsay has never been authenticated.
San Francisco jazz has produced some remarkable individuals thus far, but none so colorful or dynamic as the mighty Turk. He has done more than any other to bring Bay City jazz to its present state of evolution. When the Yerba Buena crew was in action, he was the band's work-horse, and since the break-up at Hambone Kelly's, it has always been the Turk who has carried the standard for this group's nucleus. Somehow, somewhere, he has generally managed to keep a band going through thick and thin. For one or two short periods, he did play with the "Nicksielanders," but "he rapidly returned to the fold after these encounters with the "Tin Roofers" and continued his efforts in the West Coast vein. Few will deny that Lu Watters contributed greatly to the creation of what must be recognized as a distinct school of jazz, but it was Turk who worked with him from the start and it is Turk who has stayed at it consistently, probably more so than any one else, to the present day.
The Murphy band of today is the direct descendent of Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band. It sounds quite different in several respects, but the flavor of the parent is still evident. Turk and his cohorts are belivers in musical evolution, not revolution (they feel that there are already enough revolutionary bands playing revolting music
as it is). Because they like "mouldy" jazz, they play in a "mouldy" manner. At the same time, they have added a considerable sprinkling of features found nowhere else. While there has been much loose talk about these fellows being imitators, the fact remains that they have always had a sound such as no band has had before them. Had Watters, Murphy & Co. wanted to be a reprint of the Oliver band, they certainly would have copied the old recordings with
a greater degree of accuracy. Instead, they synthesized a new style within the idiom, a fact still not realized by too many jazz fans. This is becoming continually more apparent in the work of Turk's present group.
At this writing, there are no drums and no regular cornet blowing with Turk. Bob Helm is handling the clarinet, Walt Rose the piano; Dick Lammi has switched from tuba to banjo, and ex-Castler Bob Short (Continued on Next Page)
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