Audio Tapes – An Interview Of Joe Rushton

Bass saxophonist Joe Rushton (b Evanston, IL, 1 Nov 1907; d San Francisco, 2 March 1964) was interviewed in the mid-1950s in his home in Silverlake, CA, by recording engineer Ewing Nunn.

What follows is a brief biography of Joe Rushton (from Grove Music Online):

Joe Rushton took up bass saxophone in 1928, having previously played drums, clarinet, and other saxophones. In Chicago, he led his own band until 1932 and performed with other bandleaders for the rest of the 1930s. During the early 1940s, he worked with Jimmy McPartland and Bud Freeman and went to California as a member of Benny Goodman’s group (November 1942 – September 1943), with which he performed on the soundtrack to the film The Gang’s All Here (1943). Rushton settled in California, where he worked with the pianist and bandleader Horace Heidt (February 1944 – spring 1945) and made recordings both as a leader (1945, 1947) and as a sideman; his playing is well represented by Carolina in the Morning (1945, Jump 4), recorded by Floyd O’Brien’s State Street Seven. From 1947 to spring 1963, he collaborated with Red Nichols, recording, touring Europe, appearing in five Snader telescriptions (1950), and playing in the film The Five Pennies (1958). Rushton also recorded during this period with Louis Armstrong (1947) and alongside Matty Matlock and Eddie Miller, among others, in the Rampart Street Paraders (1954).

Listen to the interview.

I am grateful to Josh Rushton for his generosity in providing the mp3 file and for permission to upload it here. Josh tells me that Joe Rushton’s birthdate given in the Grove Music Online biography is in error. The correct birthdate is April 19, 1907.