Judy Garland called Joe Bushkin, “a musician’s musician,” Frank Sinatra said, “One of the things I missed most about leaving Tommy Dorsey’s band was the piano playing of Joe Bushkin.”
Over the course of his illustrious 70 year career, Joe Bushkin played
with Benny Goodman, Louis Armstrong, Artie Shaw, Billie Holiday, led the
band for Sinatra at theParamount and was Bing Crosby’s musical
director.
Not only a legendary jazz pianist, he was also a talented song
writer who co-wrote Sinatra’s first hit, “Oh, Look At Me Now,” and, “Hot
Time in the Town of Berlin,” a hit for both Sinatra and Bing Crosby,
as well as songs for Della Reese, Louis Armstrong, Louis Jourdan, Nat King
Cole, for the Andrews Sisters, and sang and played some of his own compositions
in his inimitable style.
One of the greatest jazz musicians of all time, Joe Bushkin
died in 2004, just days before his 88th birthday.