Frank Murray

Guitarist Frank Murray (1896-1988) was born in New Orleans, the son of guitarist Spencer Murray, who led a band at Tom Anderson’s in Storyville. As a child he befriended Louis Armstrong and claims to have brought him into Kid Ory’s band when Joe Oliver left for Chicago. Murray began to study music in 1909, sponsored by the Louisiana Freedmen’s Association. From 1918 into the mid-1920s he played jobs with Buddie Petit, Kid Howard, Bill Matthews, Oscar Celestin, and George Lewis, and then he traveled with stock shows such as Mary Mack Brown Beauties and Florida Blossom Road Show. A lifelong jazz lover, in the 1950s Murray could still be found in New Orleans “second lines.”