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

[dingle at baldwin-net.com]

Bill Haesler wrote:

>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.
>
>
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>  
>
Bil - et al:
My feeble mind seems to recall that Jimmy Dorsey had a rather intricate 
sax/clarinet solo piece of a name similar to finger buster or some such. 
Can anyone recall the number I am referrng to? Since you cannot 
copyright the title ofasong -- just the composition, thereare many song 
of the same title or near title that crop upto confuse the hell out of 
us.  ODJB or Gershwin "Fidgety Feet as example. Same name -- different 
tunes.
Anyhow, if you know let me know so I can rest my aging mind and turn to 
finding where the hell I left my coffeer cup! (That was coffee I was 
swigging, wren't it?)
Don (Trout season opens in Michigan this weekend and I won't be worth a 
damn the rest of the the spring) Ingle