Joe Bushkin

Songwriter and jazz pianist who was born to Russian immigrants and learned to play the piano by age ten. His first professional performance was in 1932 with the Frank LaMarr orchestra in New York's Roseland Ballroom. By 1935, he became intermission pianist at the Famous Door where the Bunny Berigan Boys were performing, a group that included guitarist Eddie Condon and pianist George Zack, whom Bushkin ended up replacing. In 1936, he played on Billie Holiday's first recording under her own name. Later, he went on to play with Condon, Joe Marsala, and Tommy Dorsey, whose band he joined and where he wrote the hit song "Oh! Look at Me Now" with John DeVries, the tune that launched the career of a young Frank Sinatra. He was pianist with the bands of Louis Prima, Bunny Berigan, Joe Marsala, and Muggsy Spanier. In 1946, he joined Benny Goodman and later played with Louis Armstrong. In 1951, he formed his own group and worked at The Embers in New York. Bushkin retired after working with conductor/arranger Kenyon Hopkins on several Capitol albums ("Blue Angels," "Night Sounds," "I Get a Kick out of Porter"), but performed on Bing Crosby's last tours in 1976 and 1977 and a 1984 concert series at New York's St. Regis Hotel, designed to commemorate his half-century show-business career. He joined ASCAP in 1946 and wrote many songs and instrumentals.