[Dixielandjazz] Turk Murphy and Cornet Players

[Robert S. Ringwald]

I worked intermissions at Earthquake Magoons from 1970 - 1973.  Of course,
heard Turk every night during that time.

Heard him in person many other times from around 1970 until his death,
including the Carnegie Hall Concert.

Had many of Turk's recordings.  Never noticed a lack of cornet solos.

I asked Jim Maihack about this.  Jim worked with Turk for about 7 years and 
also played
intermissions for him for many more years.  Below is Jim's response.

--Bob Ringwald

(snip)
 I don't know which cornet player he's talking about.
On the recordings I did with Turk, especially the first
ones, Leon tends to play a bit "subdued" because he'd
only been on the band a short time and hadn't really
developed his confidence yet.  I never noticed much of
that with any other cornet players, though.  Schulz
certainly didn't hold back.  Maybe some of the early
recordings with Bob Short doubling cornet and tuba and
a very young Ev Farey may have sounded a bit like that,
but, again, I never noticed it.

More than anything else, Turk just always dominated the
sound of the band, by volume and by energy.  There was
never any question who the trombone player was or whose
band it was.

As far as the "rather rare" cornet solos, all the solos
were written in the charts at specific places and, as I
remember it, there were as many cornet solos as anything
else.  There were some tunes that featured Bob Helm
on which the cornet didn't play at all.  Maybe that's
what he's referring to.

Jim Maihack
(snip)


--Bob Ringwald K6YBV
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www.ringwald.com
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Leader, The Fulton Street Jazz Band
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