{"id":40814,"date":"2014-03-11T08:32:37","date_gmt":"2014-03-11T16:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=40814"},"modified":"2024-06-12T09:37:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T16:37:42","slug":"dixieland-band-video-bass-sax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2014\/dixieland-band-video-bass-sax\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Rushton: A Very Well-Known Bass Saxophonist"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bass<\/a>If you were to add up the number of recognizable bass saxophone players from the 20th century, you likely wouldn’t need more than the fingers on your two hands to count them all. While Adrian Rollini would top most people’s lists, right up there with him is Joe Rushton (April 19, 1907 – March 2, 1964).<\/p>\n

Rushton started playing bass saxophone in the later half of the 1920s. Unlike Rollini though, who was not a sax player before picking up the bass, Rushton played all the standard (SATB) voices of saxophone\u2014as well as clarinet and drums\u2014before picking up the behemoth. Once he picked up bass, it seemed he was destined to not put it down.<\/p>\n

Adrian Rollini & Joe Rushton: they were quite different<\/h2>\n

One of the major differences between Adrian Rollini and Joe Rushton was that while Rollini often fronted his own groups, Rushton rarely did. He really was more of a sideman, and as a leader recorded only six sides for Jump Records between 1945-47.<\/p>\n

As a sideman, Rushton did play and record with a great many musicians and groups, including: the California Ramblers (occasionally), Ted Weems, Jimmy McPartland, Bud Freeman, Benny Goodman, Horace Heidt, Floyd O’Brien, the Rampart Street Paraders, and Red Nichols’ Five Pennies. This last job with Red Nichols began in 1947, and went until spring of 1963.<\/p>\n

In the following video, the Red Nichols and his Five Pennies band were guests on the Lawrence Welk Show<\/em>. The Year: it was 1956. Specifically, it was Welk’s New Year’s Eve Show on December 29, 1956 (presumably the taping date). Besides Joe Rushton, the other members of the Five Pennies band were: Al Stevenson (piano), Bill Wood (clarinet), Rollie Culver (drums), King Jackson (trombone), and Red Nichols (coronet). (The bass sax solo starts at 1:30.)<\/p>\n