[Dixielandjazz] Turk Tribute

[Robert Ringwald]

Bob Romans wrote:
>Here's Turk Murphy's band playing in New York city the night before his
>Carnegie Hall concert.
>
>OKOM doesn't get any better than this, in my humble estimation!!!!
>
>  <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaWlZQZo6VI>
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaWlZQZo6VI


I was there!  The Potomac River Jazz Club chartered a bus to take a
couple dozen of us to New York for the event.  As the club's special
events director, I had brought Turk to the DC area to play for us in
1979 and 1980.  You can imagine what a thrill it was to have such a
legend come to our far corner of the country.  His band at the time
was consisted of Bob Helm, John Gill, Pete Clute, Bob Schulz, Bill
Carroll and Pat Yankee.  On the wall above my desk hangs the
publicity photo of that group that Turk sent me for the concert
flyer, signed by all of them.


I was also there. I had always wished that I could have been at the 1938
Carnegie Hall BG concert. So I said, I'm not gonna miss Turk at Carnegie
Hall.

For the first half of the Carnegie Hall concert, my daughter and I were
sitting behind the band on stage. The sound was terrible. All we could hear
was the rhythm section with the horn sounds bouncing off the back wall with
a slight delay. During the intermission I told Jim Cullum so he gave us
seats out front in his box for the 2nd half of the concert.

It was a shame that Pete Clute, Bob Helm, Willie Carrol and Pat Yankee
weren't there.

That was Turk's nexxt to the last time that he played as he was very ill 
with cancer.

The party the night before was something else also. Have any of you seen the
video? I believe it is or was available on the internet.

-Bob

Bob Ringwald
Amateur (ham) Radio Station K6YBV
rsr at ringwald.com
www.ringwald.com

This Coronavirus has turned us all into dogs. We waunder around the house
looking for food.
We get told "No" if we get too close to strangers and we get really excited
about going for walks and car rides.