[Dixielandjazz] Storyville musical

[Dan Augustine]

Folks--
     Back in June i wrote the following:
"Whilst at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee i heard the Devil Mountain 
Jazz Band and liked them a lot, so i bought a CD of theirs entitled 
_You Asked for More!_  One of the songs on it is called "Chauncy's 
Tune: Little Enough" (or usually "Little Enough"), written by Turk 
Murphy. The liner notes say of this delightful song, "'Little Enough' 
was written in 1982 by Turk Murphy for an Off-Broadway show, 
_Storyville_, which had a short run in 1984.  This has become the 
DMJB's most requested tune in recent years." You could have knocked 
me over with a feather if you had told me that Turk wrote this 
tune--it's completely different from his trombone-playing style."
     Since then i've been corresponding with Bill Oakley of Denver 
about the original production and music of _Storyville_, and he's 
sent me excerpts of the performances and a synopsis of the story 
(endless thanks, Bill!).  The show was originally tried out in New 
York in 1983, and all the critics loved it except for one, and that 
killed the backing.  A Denver production also received rave reviews, 
but the money for a Broadway production was never raised.  Bill 
Oakley comments that "Most of Turk's friends thought it had some of 
the best music Turk had ever written."
     Basically, my reaction to hearing these songs and the musical is 
that it would be a great shame and loss to both the jazz community 
and to theatre audiences in general if _Storyville_ is allowed to 
fade away and not be heard any more.  It is a fine show, with a 
strong plot (Bill Oakley and Michael Hulett did the book for it), and 
wonderful songs by Turk (lyrics by Michael Hulett), who shows that he 
could write good non-trad-jazz songs.  There are a number of very 
good songs in the show, but my favorites are "Chauncey's Tune", "Lady 
Gets Me There", "Chicago Drag", and especially "Elegy".  This last 
tune is extremely chromatic, and i would expect that it is hard to 
sing, except that i keep humming it to myself (and i can furnish 
passionate and professional opinions testifying that i am no singer). 
"Elegy", interestingly enough, was recorded by Turk in 1971 under the 
title "Magic Theme" as one of the songs for the movie "Alabama's 
Ghost" (also a song), which are on the CD called "Euphonic Sounds" 
(San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation, SFTJF CD 104, released in 
2000).
     Anyway, i just thought i'd toss out this information and see if 
we might generate some interest in somebody perhaps reviving the 
musical, or at least doing a recording of the songs.  Seems like this 
kind of thing might also be possible for a college drama or music 
department to try out, but i have no contacts any longer with 
entities of that ilk.  Also, perhaps John Gill or bands that play 
Turk's songs might like to try some of the 20 songs from _Storyville_ 
(John might have the music, or know where it is).  Worth a try.

     Dan
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**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine@mail.utexas.edu  **
**        "Luck is the residue of design."  --  Branch Rickey         **
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