Joe "Fingers" Carr: "Entertainer's Rag" (1956)

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"Entertainer's Rag" is by James Martin 'Jay' Roberts, a ragtime pianist and composer who was born June 4, 1890 in Oakland, CA. and died July 28, 1932 in Balboa, Ancon, Panama.

Lou Busch (ne Louis Ferdinand Bush) was an American record producer, musician and songwriter, best known for performing, as a pianist under the pseudonym Joe "Fingers" Carr. (I remember him as Allan Sherman's bandleader/arranger.)

He was born in Louisville during the ragtime era. By age 12, Lou had his own small band, Lou Bush and His Tickle Toe Four. Bush quit school at 16 to become a professional musician. He gigged with orchestras led by Henry Busse, Clyde McCoy, and George Olsen but left performing in his early 20s to study music theory. During the late 1930s he was pianist and arranger for Hal Kemp, who died in a car crash in 1940.

Following 3 years of WWII service, Busch, who thought adding a "C" to his last name made it look fancier, joined a new label, Johnny Mercer's CAPITOL Records. In 1949 he was pianist on a Jo Stafford hit, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe". This led to his creation of Joe "Fingers" Carr and a successful decade recording under that persona at Capitol.


Released 1956 on vinyl CAPITOL LP #T760,
"Mr. Ragtime JOE "FINGERS" CARR"

Reissued 2002 on 3-disc EMI-CAPITOL Music CD set #72435-38905-2-0,
"JAZZ Legends"