[Dixielandjazz] Turk Murphy and Trombones

[John Gill]

I worked with Turk Murphy for a long time. I happen to think he was great and that goes for his solos, his breaks, his vocals and his concept of what traditional jazz was. I also find it impossible to compare his work to other trombone greats and there have been many great trombonists sliding in and out of jazz history for about 100 years. I didn't see these trombonists mentioned: Kid Ory, Eddie Edwards, Miff Mole, Trummy Young, Honore Dutrey, Vic Dickenson, Cutty Cutshall, Jim Robinson, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Harrison, J.C. Higgenbottam, and on and on and on. I think the best point made about Turk in this thread about him is that he spoke thru his band. He considered himself to be one voice in the ensemble, and he felt that his approach to jazz were best served when the whole band was playing. He believed that the ensemble was more important than the soloists and gave himself limited solo space. Turk had a speech impediment, he stuttered. So his speaking pattern was made up of short sound bursts designed to express himself in as brief a way as possible, and I think there is a connection between his trombone playing and his speech impediment. Turk was pretty controversial in some ways. For instance, He was unabashed in his hatred of "Swing" music and "Sweet" dance orchestras. He much preferred Louis to Bix ,  Dodds to Goodman, the banjo to the guitar, the tuba to the bass, etc. He was a difficult man and hard on his sidemen and I speak of that from personal experience. But I did love playing in his band and I miss it very much. In the seventies he started have gum and teeth problems and by the time I joined in 1977, these issues were making it hard for him to play. He eventually had dental implants and this helped somewhat but by the early 1980's he was diagnosed with prostate cancer which eventually became bone cancer and he was gone. So I think it comes down to this either you dig Turk Murphy and his sound or you don't and that's fine but to try and compare him to Lou McGarrity or Abe Lincoln just isn't fair, these guys were "MONSTER" trombone players who were at home in any kind of music. Turk was a traditional jazz guy who loved Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver and Clarence Williams and not much else. He owned his own nightclub so he could present his version of traditional jazz in his own way. He had recording contracts with Columbia, Victor, Atlantic, and Verve. He was very influential in his day but has pretty much become just a footnote in jazz history. But he did keep a band working full time for almost 40 years, I'm not talking about one night a month, or every other Friday night, I'm talking 5-6 nights a week, and he paid into the musicians union pension fund and paid work dues for all of us who worked for him. I'm lucky I guess in that I really enjoy all the trombonists mentioned in this thread and I've listened to all of them for many years now. I honestly can't say I prefer one to another I like them all for different reasons. I would like to think that we can enjoy the work of Turk Murphy and Abe Lincoln on the same level and if we can we will. But if we can't we can't. On You Tube there is a video of the Murphy Band live playing "Snake Rag", it's been up there for several years. This lineup may be his best one. If this performance does not move you, then it would be safe to say that the music of Turk Murphy is not for you. Most of his stuff is available on Amazon, and there's a lot on You Tube also. So all the Murphy fans and former sidemen are not all dead and have not all left the list, they are just baffled by these kinds of questions and reluctant to respond.