[Dixielandjazz] Re:Finger Buster (was Beetles are musical -- etc.)

[Bill Haesler]

Dear Phil,
Regarding: >Didn't Willie The Lion write Fingerbuster and Morton wrote
Fingerbreaker??<
*Willie 'The Lion' Smith. "Finger Buster" [two words].
Recorded 14 May 1934. ARC unissued. First issued in the 1970s on Meritt 4,
an LP (which I have).
I also have it on Classics 662 CD.
Willie 'The Lion' also recorded it twice for Commodore, in 1939 and 1950
(which I have).
*Jelly Roll Morton. "Finger Buster" [also two words] which sounds to me like
an adaptation of his 1924 "Perfect Rag".
Recorded in Washington, DC in Dec 1938. Issued as such on Jazzman 12 (I used
to have the 78.)
Copyrighted in 1942 (after Jelly's death) by Roy Carew, on behalf of the
Morton estate, as "Fingerbreaker" [one word].
I have this on Classics 654 CD and several LPs.
I suspect that when the Jazzman 78 came out, it was realised that Smith had
already copyrighted the name, so Jelly changed it to "Fingerbreaker'.
Too late for us in the 40s, as we had the JRM 78 and already knew it as
"Finger Buster". Old habits die hard. It was much later that we knew about,
and heard, Willie's versions.
Dick Hyman and Don Ewell, used the "Fingerbreaker" title when they later
recorded the piece.
Apparently, Jelly was working on a big band arrangement of "Fingerbreaker'
just before he died.
Smith hated Jelly professionally and never gave him credit as being much of
a piano player (refer Bill Russell' 'big book', "Oh! Mister Jelly" [page
448]) and once said, somewhere, that "Morton couldn't hit a piano with a
brick!". 
I mentioned this to cltist Joe Darensbourg when he was here with Louis in
March 1963 and he would not talk to me after that, as he loved Jelly and
really hated Smith. Talk about shooting the messenger!
Mike Meddings' wonderful, and essential, Jelly Roll Morton section of his
fine web site will have the answer, but I could not discover how to 'search'
it, or access particular subjects.
The procedure was probably staring at me.
Is Mike he still on the DJML? He has been 'silent' of late.
Probably worn out after the monumental task of helping transcribe and type
up the words from Jelly's Library of Congress recordings!
Regards, 
Bill.