[Dixielandjazz] Re: I Am Pecan Pete, by Turk Murphy

[Dan Augustine]

To: "I Am Pecan Pete" scholars:

     I am surprised that none of the other Murphy scholars has 
submitted this intelligence yet, but humbly i leap into the breach. 
This supplements Herr Professor Haesler's information, which is 
correct according to the information given in the book mentioned 
below.

     From _Turk Murphy: Just for the Record_ by Jim Goggin (San 
Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation, 1982) it is reported that the 
song "I Am Pecan Pete" first appeared on a recording on May 28, 1968. 
This was a private tape from the Wachusett Country Club, West 
Boylston, Massachusetts, from a live performance at the Massachusetts 
Traditional Jazz Club Concert.  The song was listed (on page 152 of 
this book) as "Pecan Pete".
     After this, there is a private tape of a live performance of a 
concert at Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, on May 11, 1970. 
The song is listed as "I Am Pecan Pete".
     Referring to this concert, Jim Goggin ("Jim" below) says to Turk 
Murphy ("Turk") on page 174:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim:  I don't know why I put "Terrible Blues" on because one of the
       questions I wanted to ask you was the story was the story
       about "Pecan Pete", I should have put that one on.  That was
       a dream?

Turk: Yes, it...I'd been married before and Grace, she was a lovely
       person who used to read in bed and I had the unhappy habit
       of talking.

Jim:  That's dangerous if you're married, Turk.

Turk: Not what I said, nobody would believe these things.  Ask Burt
       Bales about my talk in my sleep sometime.  It's just
       ridiculous, we just bust laughing at the things I used to
       say.  Anyway the thing was I wrote the tune later on, started
       for Grace, she was still alive at the time and I was asleep
       and she was reading in bed, sitting there reading and she used
       to talk to me when I would start talking about something why
       she would talk to me and she related the whole conversation
       later on but I didn't remember much about it but she said I
       was reciting numbers, statistics and things.  And I said,
       "100,000 white geese, and 400,000 Canadian geese, 10,000
       ducks, 40,000 white swans" and she said, "Wait a minute",
       and I stopped and she said, "Who are you that you should know
       all these things" and I said, "I am Pecan Pete".

Jim:  Naturally.

Turk: Who the hell is Pecan Pete?  But that was the whole thing.
       That was how..."I am Pecan Pete" was the full title of the
       thing.

Jim:  Now that provided you with the title but had you written
       the tune at the time?

Turk: No, it's just kind of funny, I thought I'd stick it on this
       tune 'cause it seemed there was nothing, I didn't have an
       appropriate title at the time.
---------------------------------------------------------------------

     I myself bust a gut thinking about Jim Goggin saying "Naturally".

     Dan
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 11:05:41 +1100
>From: Bill Haesler <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
>To: Bob Romans <cellblk7 at comcast.net>,
>	dixieland jazz mail list <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>
>Dear Bob, Bruce and Vickye,
>"I Am Pecan Pete" was indeed composed by Turk Murphy.
>Its first outing on record was an LP made in Adelaide, Australia on 29
>December 1978, 'OZ Turk'. (Jazz & Jazz Records 6357 903 with notes by Bill
>Haesler. Now available on a 2CD set 'Oz Turk Plus' BAC-07-2 with notes by
>the late Ron Halstead).
>The Turk Murphy band was on a tour of the eastern Australian states and
>attended the 33rd Australian Jazz Convention in Adelaide as special guests.
>As they featured "I Am Pecan Pete" on several occasions while here, I have
>always assumed that the tune was, at that time, a recent composition.
>Therefore, I have always dated it at 1978.
>We had already met most of the band on the first tour of Australia (1974)
>and again in  San Francisco (1975). It was great to mix with them again in
>1978, both at the Convention and during their concert stay in Sydney.
>Kind regards,
>Bill.

-- 
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**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu  **
**    "Barth's Distinction: There are two types of people: those who  **
**     divide people into two types, and those who don't."            **
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