Biography
Pianist Joe Bushkin brought his unmistakable light and spirited touch to swing-era recordings led by Bunny Berigan and Tommy Dorsey before expanding into pop, cabaret, and Broadway work. Born in New York City on November 7, 1916, to a cellist father, he started piano lessons at age ten under a neighbor who had studied with the landlord’s son, himself a pupil of the renowned Polish pianist Leopold Godowsky, despite later claims that he trained directly with Godowsky. After a bicycle accident damaged his hand and threatened his keyboard career, the teenage Bushkin briefly took up trumpet, then recovered swiftly enough to join a jazz ensemble organized by fellow students at DeWitt Clinton High School. Through his acquaintance with Irving Goodman, he received an offer to substitute for Teddy Wilson on a 1931 Benny Goodman date; although Wilson arrived minutes before the session began, the opportunity yielded contacts that secured work with dance bands along the Eastern seaboard and led to Bushkin’s professional debut at New York’s Roseland Ballroom.
At nineteen he joined Berigan and soon afterward appeared with both Berigan and Artie Shaw on one of Billie Holiday’s earliest sessions, which produced the landmark sides “Summertime” and “Billie’s Blues.” Between 1936 and 1938 he also accompanied guitarist Eddie Condon and ultimately became the last surviving member of Condon’s celebrated circle. Following his elegant contribution to cornetist Muggsy Spanier’s 1939 classic “Relaxing at the Touro,” Bushkin entered Dorsey’s orchestra, where he participated in more than one hundred recordings, many alongside Frank Sinatra and drummer Buddy Rich. He composed the song “Oh, Look at Me Now,” which reached the top of the Hit Parade in early 1941 and became Sinatra’s first major hit. Bushkin departed Dorsey in 1942 to serve four years as a trumpeter in the U.S. Army Air Corps band.
Returning to New York, he worked with composer David Rose and, in 1946, took Mel Powell’s place in Goodman’s new ensemble, only to leave a few months later because of artistic disagreements. In 1947 he toured Brazil with tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman. Longstanding Broadway connections led to a 1949 commission to compose the score for Garson Kanin’s The Rat Race; Bushkin later joined the cast as a bandleader, a part he had not yet played in actual life. The next year he began a series of extended residencies at the midtown club the Embers, performing with Milt Hinton, Buck Clayton, and Jo Jones. His first solo album, I Love a Piano, appeared on Atlantic in 1950; the following year he rejoined Sinatra to lead the singer’s band at New York’s Paramount Theater. A 1953 trip to England planned for three weeks stretched into five months; upon his return Bushkin joined Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars and recorded with the group.
The title track of his 1955 solo album, “Midnight Rhapsody,” became a modest hit. Although he wrote several originals, among them the novelties “There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin” and “Ain’t Been the Same Since the Beatles,” Bushkin remained far better known as a performer than as a songwriter. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s his groups were fixtures on the Manhattan nightclub scene; he cultivated a wide social circle and eventually accumulated sufficient resources to ease into semi-retirement. Bushkin and his family moved to London in 1969; two years later they settled in Santa Barbara. Bing Crosby coaxed him back to performing in 1975, and Bushkin served as featured soloist on the crooner’s final world tour, which closed with a late-1976 Broadway engagement.
In his later decades Bushkin selected engagements carefully, presiding over piano rooms at Michael’s Pub, the St. Regis, and the Carlyle. He also composed and appeared in the revue Swinging on a Star while mentoring younger players such as cornetist Warren Vaché, Jr. On November 3, 2004, four days before his eighty-eighth birthday, he died of pneumonia.
At nineteen he joined Berigan and soon afterward appeared with both Berigan and Artie Shaw on one of Billie Holiday’s earliest sessions, which produced the landmark sides “Summertime” and “Billie’s Blues.” Between 1936 and 1938 he also accompanied guitarist Eddie Condon and ultimately became the last surviving member of Condon’s celebrated circle. Following his elegant contribution to cornetist Muggsy Spanier’s 1939 classic “Relaxing at the Touro,” Bushkin entered Dorsey’s orchestra, where he participated in more than one hundred recordings, many alongside Frank Sinatra and drummer Buddy Rich. He composed the song “Oh, Look at Me Now,” which reached the top of the Hit Parade in early 1941 and became Sinatra’s first major hit. Bushkin departed Dorsey in 1942 to serve four years as a trumpeter in the U.S. Army Air Corps band.
Returning to New York, he worked with composer David Rose and, in 1946, took Mel Powell’s place in Goodman’s new ensemble, only to leave a few months later because of artistic disagreements. In 1947 he toured Brazil with tenor saxophonist Bud Freeman. Longstanding Broadway connections led to a 1949 commission to compose the score for Garson Kanin’s The Rat Race; Bushkin later joined the cast as a bandleader, a part he had not yet played in actual life. The next year he began a series of extended residencies at the midtown club the Embers, performing with Milt Hinton, Buck Clayton, and Jo Jones. His first solo album, I Love a Piano, appeared on Atlantic in 1950; the following year he rejoined Sinatra to lead the singer’s band at New York’s Paramount Theater. A 1953 trip to England planned for three weeks stretched into five months; upon his return Bushkin joined Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars and recorded with the group.
The title track of his 1955 solo album, “Midnight Rhapsody,” became a modest hit. Although he wrote several originals, among them the novelties “There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Town of Berlin” and “Ain’t Been the Same Since the Beatles,” Bushkin remained far better known as a performer than as a songwriter. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s his groups were fixtures on the Manhattan nightclub scene; he cultivated a wide social circle and eventually accumulated sufficient resources to ease into semi-retirement. Bushkin and his family moved to London in 1969; two years later they settled in Santa Barbara. Bing Crosby coaxed him back to performing in 1975, and Bushkin served as featured soloist on the crooner’s final world tour, which closed with a late-1976 Broadway engagement.
In his later decades Bushkin selected engagements carefully, presiding over piano rooms at Michael’s Pub, the St. Regis, and the Carlyle. He also composed and appeared in the revue Swinging on a Star while mentoring younger players such as cornetist Warren Vaché, Jr. On November 3, 2004, four days before his eighty-eighth birthday, he died of pneumonia.
Albums
