Q & A with Dave Weisser & Jude Murphy - Part 1 of 3

BSH: Dave, you and I (Lance) go back a long way. Early 1970s I think it was when you first showed up in J.G. Windows’ music shop. It wasn’t long after that that you began working there. How did you get to be in Newcastle and, after living in America for so long, was the North East somewhat of a culture shock?

Dave: I married a Geordie lass in the States, and when she wanted to come home to the UK I came with her.  I started at Newcastle University, studying Psychology and in the same year I also started working part-time at Windows. 

It was a bit of a culture shock to be in the NE of England after California, but remember America was in a crisis of its own in the early 1970s.

Jude: Lance, not sure if you remember, I also did a short stint of working at J.G. Windows in the mid-1980s.  It’s a rite of passage for musicians, isn’t it?

BSH: Certainly is a rite of passage. That in itself may well be worth pursuing at some later date! Before we get around to the present, tell us about your life in the States, were you from a musical family? Did you meet up with any big name musicians? I recall you mentioning Doris Day and John Coltrane!

Dave: I was born and bred in New Haven, Connecticut.  My mother played piano but it wasn’t what I wanted to play.  In High School I sang with a few other people getting in on the doowop craze. 

I got my first trumpet at the age of 12 and I taught myself.  The only real trumpet lesson I had was when my old friend from New Haven, David Dana was touring with Buddy Rich’s band, and met up with us in California.  Dave introduced me to his bandmate, the trumpeter Sal Marquez and he gave me some invaluable tips.

I was working in Wallich’s Music City in LA when I saw Doris Day yell at a member of staff: “Will none of you bastards wait on me?”  Refusing to wait in the queue, so impatiently, was hardly the picture we usually get of her! 

As for John Coltrane, some friends and I trekked through a snowstorm from Connecticut to New York’s Half Note to see Coltrane.  He was stuck in the same storm and turned up an hour late, but it was worth it.  One of my friends approached Coltrane at the interval and asked for the changes to Little Old Lady, and the big man said “See McCoy [Tyner]”.  McCoy put the whole book in front of him and said “Take what you want”.  Two years later, we saw Trane in California with a double saxophone sextet.  I remember Roy Ayers stood up and said “Nobody understands this music, Coltrane’s leaving everyone behind”.

BSH: I remember you singing Blueberry Hill with the Newcastle Big Band on their Sunday lunchtime sessions. Was it your uncle who came over and sat in on trombone when they played in the car park? There was also the band with the late Terry Lambert and many others.

Dave: The guy on trombone was Chick Dahlsten, the father of a friend of mine from California.  He was just on holiday in Britain at the time.  Chick and Shirley, and their son Dave were all really good friends of mine.

Terry Lambert was among my first friends in the North East.  We played in a band called the Barracudas, playing mostly soul.  At roughly the same time, I was also playing in The Posh Monkeys with Paul Miskin and Dennis Tweedy.

BSH: Jude, you and Dave worked on cruises – is that how you met? Tell us about your musical upbringing. You play so many instruments – sax, flute, bass guitar, sing – probably more. You do them all so well but, do you have a favourite – or is that an unfair question?

Jude: It was Dave who worked on cruises.  We worked together in hotels, mostly in Dubai, Turkey and Madeira.  We met when Dave came back off a cruise to Bermuda and found himself booked into the same scratch band as me for a New Year’s Eve gig at the George Washington Hotel.  It was musically not a night to remember, but we really hit it off and stayed chatting for a few hours after the gig ended.  From then on, we’d drop in at each other’s gigs and it all blossomed from there.

My musical upbringing?  My dad played a bit of piano and was the organist for our local Methodist chapel. And my mam had apparently been a very nice singer when she was younger.  So I grew up around music for sure, but mostly classical and a bit of Scottish folk of the Jimmy Shand variety.  I did a few piano lessons as a kid, and picked up recorder and guitar very quickly by myself, had some classical singing lessons (I was once a proper soprano!) and studied that right through to the end of my performing arts degree, but somewhere down the line I’d fallen in love with jazz, folk and jazz-funk, and got involved in several bands including The Wobblies.

Flute came later – when Dave and I ended up in a holiday camp band.  I taught myself because the female singers in these bands were woefully underused.  Sax came a bit later still – again self-taught.  Bass only about five years ago.  My favourite is whatever I’m playing at the time, I guess.  Although I have a new love since lockdown – a half-size double bass called Loulou, and she’s already had an outing – at a duo gig with Bernie Ranson  at Prohibition Bar.

(To be continued tomorrow)