Live at the Embers 1952By Robert Merrill

One night in early 1952, the violinist David Sarser, who played his prized Stradivarius under Toscanini with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, lugged one of the first Ampex reel-to-reel tape decks into a popular Manhattan nightclub on East 54th street called The Embers. Sarser was an innovative audiophile, and his mission was to record some of the excellent music being served up nightly by four of the world’s top Jazz musicians at the top of their game.

Joe Bushkin, the leader, was a gifted pianist who emerged during the pioneer days of American Jazz, with

a gregarious style containing hints of Art Tatum, glints of Teddy Wilson, and touches of Earl Hines, three of his early contemporaries. But there was much more to his

breadth as an artist. He was truly a man for all seasons, a renaissance Jazzman who was a gifted songwriter, arranger, conductor, singer, trumpeter, actor, comedian, and all-around bon vivant.

Bushkin had played with Benny Goodman as a teenager, had accompanied Billie Holiday on her first recordings, and later joined Tommy Dorsey’s band, writing Frank Sinatra’s first hit, “Oh! Look at Me Now” in 1940. Enlisting in the Army Air Corps, Joe avoided battle in WWII by serving as David Rose’s assistant for the Winged Victory musical on Broadway. After the war, a stint with Benny Goodman’s band led to residences with his groups at spots like The Little Club and Café Society.

When Bushkin’s quartet opened at The Embers for a two-week engagement in the Fall of 1951, they caused such a sensation that owner Ralph Watkins held them over for 16 weeks. Patrons would congregate nightly at the El Morocco club across the street to wait for a table at The Embers to open up.

The quartet consisted Buck Clayton on trumpet, and “Papa” Jo Jones on drums, legendary veterans of Count Basie’s band. Rounding out the group was a young bassist from Chicago, Milt Hinton, whom Joe had summoned from the road with Cab Calloway’s band. Later nicknamed “The Judge” for his impeccable, swinging timekeeping, this engagement was Hinton’s first big break that brought him to New York. “At The Embers, Art Tatum played solo piano, and I worked with my quartet,” Bushkin recalled. “When we got paid, we’d go down to the basement to count up our loot, and Art would get out his little flashlight, because he had

Live at the Embers 1952

some vision in one eye. One night he didn’t have his flashlight, so he asked me to count his money for him and said, ‘Make sure there’s fifteen hundred there, Joe.’ I was getting $1250 with my quartet, and I told him, so Art went to Ralph Watkins and said he would give them his notice unless I got $1500 as well, and they agreed. Art was fond of me, there were many nights I played his first set for him, and sometimes his last set. I used to hang out with Art back in ‘42 when I was on my weekend passes from March Field, and he was playing at The Streets Of Paris on Hollywood Boulevard. I would go down there and dig him and we used to go and shoot crap with the waiters in the basement. Art was a very good crap shooter.”

After their first run at The Embers, Bushkin’s quartet did a tour with Jackie Gleason’s road show, and Joe made appearances on Frank Sinatra’s weekly television show. Columbia put Joe under contract for a series of records featuring the group, and they returned to The Embers in 1953 for an historic 26-week run. There was one drawback, however: according to NYC’s arcane cabaret laws, Joe was forbidden to open his mouth to sing or talk to the audience, else the patrons would be subjected to a mandatory cover charge, which the mob-run management wanted to avoid. So although he was a talented singer/songwriter, Joe had no choice but to keep his mouth shut.

On the heels of his success at The Embers, Joe inked a deal with Capitol Records in 1955, featuring his trio in the company of a large orchestra, which reached a wider audience. “Midnight Rhapsody” came out in

Live at the Embers 1952

early 1956 and sold over half a million copies and led to another seven albums for Capitol with the large orchestra format. Bushkin had reached a new level of popularity, and started doing TV guest shots for Rosemary Clooney and Judy Garland. In 1960, Hollywood beckoned, and Joe became a movie star, appearing in the film version of The Rat Race with Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds. In later years, Joe and his wife Francice settled down on a horse farm in Santa Barbara, raising four daughters and breeding thoroughbreds along with his old pal Bing Crosby, whom he toured the world with in 1976, Crosby’s last tour. Bushkin passed away in 2004 at the age of 88, achieving his stated goal of living for as many years as there are keys on the piano.

But back to David Sarser, and his mission. In addition to being a superb violinist, Sarser was an innovative audio engineer and electronics designer who worked with Les Paul in the early days of recording technology, developing the first multi-track recording device, an 8-track tape recorder made by Ampex. He built A& R Recoding Studios in 1960 for producer Phil Ramone. Sadly, his “Zimbalist” Stradivarius violin was stolen in the 1960’s and he was so heartbroken, he never played the fiddle again. But his zeal for recording led to his capturing the superb sounds that have been thankfully preserved and presented on this album.

Robert Merrill

The Dot Time Records Legends series features previously unreleased historical recordings from many of the greatest legends of the jazz genre. We at Dot Time Records believe that these recordings form an important part of the history of jazz and it is our goal to make these recordings available to jazz lovers worldwide. All of the Legends Series releases have been re-mastered with the goal of presenting these recordings in a modern format while striving to keep the original atmosphere of the recordings intact.

Buck Clayton, TrumpetJoe Bushkin, Piano

Milt Hinton, Double BassJo Jones, Drums

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