[Dixielandjazz] Murphy bio.

[Dan Augustine]

     Yeah, well, Mike, i'm with you.  Lu Watters had to be one of the 
most interesting persons, let alone musicians, ever to grace our 
rotating orb of clay.  And Turk was also an interesting and complex 
person. Seems like there is a Sidney Bechet Society, isn't there? 
But no Lu Watters nor Turk Murphy Societies?  (Quel fromage!) 
SOMEBODY needs to write at least a reminiscence of everybody still 
living (Dottie, you there?) who knew one or both of these guys.  An 
oral history or something.  Don't let what i'm sure are marvelous 
stories about them die when you die.
     And by the way, as much as Mike and i agree on Turk and like his 
stuff, i think the book about Turk (_Just for the Record_) is 
fascinating.  I hate to let everyone know, but i'm preparing an index 
of all the songs and all the recordings mentioned in that book, and 
eventually i'm going to combine them with a list of all of Turk's 
personnel over the years and a list of all other recordings and CDs 
and private tapes to make a database of all the music.  I'm also 
going to incorporate all the liner-notes from the LPs if there's 
interesting information in them.

     Dan (who never saw Turk's band live, but lived in the town he 
named his son after)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>From: "Fr M J \(Mike\) Logsdon" <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
>Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 23:55:25 -0700
>Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Murphy bio.
>Cc: Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>
>Jokingly, I'm often referred to by my friends as a "Turk Murphy expert".
>Proof of the joke is that I know virtually nothing about Turk personally.
>Which leads me to....
>
>There have been books written about the Watters/Murphy millieu, but NONE
>written as direct biography about any of the principal players.  When will
>THE Lu Watters biography be written?  THE Murphy biography?  THE Helm
>biography?
>
>If I had the time, money, and inclination, I'd do it in a heartbeat,
>considering where I live, who I know, etc.  But with each passing year, I
>can't help wondering:  Will precious living memory as regards the
>Watters-Murphy clan be truly lost?
>
>Sorry for moaning.  I just want something more than *Turk Murphy: Just for
>the Record* (an admirable, but virtually pointless book) and that Buchanan
>volume on the Yerba Buenans on my shelf.  (No offense to my Down Under
>friends if I say the Buchanan volume is interesting, but not terribly
>well-written.),
>----
>Etc,
>
>Fr M J (Mike) Logsdon, Vicar-general

-- 
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**
**  Dan Augustine  --  Austin, Texas  --  ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu
**      "Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk.  That will
**       teach you to keep your mouth shut."  --  Ernest Hemingway
**--------------------------------------------------------------------**