Turk Murphy's Jazz Band Vintage Photo 1952 Italian Village San Francisco

Description

Condition: Very Fine+, sealed with cardboard
Photo size: 5" x 7"
Cardboard Size: 9 3/8" x 7 1/4"
originally sold by Yerba Buena Music Shops 5721 Grove St. Oakland CA
Turk Murphy 1915–1987
Melvin Edward Alton “Turk” Murphy was born in Palermo, California, December 16, 1915, and began playing in San Francisco dance bands as early as 1930. He played with the Will Osborne and Mal Hallet orchestras during the middle 1930’s, and in 1939 teamed with the legendary Lu Watters. He joined Waters’ Yerba Buena Jazz Band which began a steady engagement at the Dawn Club in the basement of the Monadnock Building on Market between Third and Annie streets.
The Yerba Buena Jazz Band broke up in 1950, and Murphy jobbed around with various orchestras until January 1952, when he opened with his own band at the Italian Village at Columbus and Lombard, in San Francisco’s North Beach. From 1984, until his death, Turk and his band played in the New Orleans Room of the Fairmont Hotel. Churchill Street, a narrow lane that runs between Broadway and Vallejo, was renamed, by the Board of Supervisors, "Turk Murphy Lane" after his death.
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