[Dixielandjazz] Turk wannabe's

[Scott Anthony]

As most of you know, I'm in Bob Schulz's Frisco Jazz Band, and he's in my 
Golden Gate Rhythm Machine. We've been having this incestuous relationship 
for almost 20 years now.

I can't really speak for Bob, but I don't think he is in any way trying to 
reproduce the sound of the Turk Murphy Jazz Band, and I know for certain 
that we are not. The Frisco Jazz Band is much more like the Chicago based 
Bob Scobey band that Bob (Schulz) heard and loved when growing up and as a 
younger musician in Wisconsin. I don't know who the GGRM might sound most 
like, but it definitely is not Turk.

While doing intermissions for Turk for 8 years from 1976 to 1984 when the 
last Earthquake McGoon's closed and the band moved to the Fairmont, I had 
the chance to listen to Turk's band almost every night through 4 different 
cornet/trumpet players (Leon Oakley, Chris Tyle, George Rock, and finally 
Bob Schulz) and a number of different implementations of banjo, reeds, etc. 
As those 8 years progressed, the tempos slowed continuously but especially 
after about 1981, and it seemed that with every change of location for 
Earthquake McGoon's, the morale of the band members followed the tempos. 
Sometimes it seemed that on the slow tunes, they might actually stop!

As an interesting aside, John Gill began playing trombone right about the 
time (I think) Turk died in 1987, and played in the mid-1990s at the Gold 
Dust on Powell Street every Wednesday night for quite awhile. I think he got 
really good. I am sure he did not consiously try to imitate Turk, but he not 
only sounded like him, but he really looked like him when he was playing! It 
was very weird.

Scott Anthony


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "eupher dude" <eupher61 at hotmail.com>
To: <santh at pacbell.net>
Cc: "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2007 2:32 PM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Turk wannabe's


> Well, Bob Schulz has a good sound happening with the Frisco JB.  Of 
> course,
> a couple of key players with that bunch are pretty much Dog-gin' it too.
>
> But, true, the Original Salty Dogs don't really come all that close to
> Turk's style.  But, my opinion only, Turk's last few recordings (say, from
> about 1983 on) really were lacking spirit.  The playing was tight, but the
> pizazz just didn't come out.  The last time I saw Turk (OK, the ONLY time,
> sadly) in SF was in '86, after it was known that he was sick, and not long
> before the band personnel turned over big time.  It was great to see and
> hear the band in its home environment at the Fairmont, but musically it 
> was
> only OK.  The Dogs, OTOH, have kept that spark going.  Maybe it's because
> they don't have the tight arrangements, although it's often hard to tell
> that.  Tom's playing might sound more like Turk than Turk did the last 10
> years of his life.  Mike actually bought Bill Carrol's tuba.  The general
> sound of the Dogs is about as close as anyone comes to a Murphy sound,
> although the solo features are more prominent.  The ensembles are 
> certainly
> there though, and since they've been together for so long now they can
> pretty much tell each other's thoughts, musically at least.
>
> If you can't tell, I'm an OSDJB fan.
>
> steve "GHB recently bought the rights to their recordings" hoog
>
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