Nowhere near as famous as Ahmad Jamal or Ramsey Lewis, jazz pianist Joe Burton explored some similar territory in the '50s and '60s on a series of albums for labels such as Regent, Coral and Joday. Burton also had his own artistic influences that were refreshingly at odds with the aforementioned players, a heavy thirst for bebop in which tall drinks of stylists such as Lennie Tristano and Bud Powell were often on order, intoxicating riffing with never a question of steadiness in the left hand. Burton's background included heavy duty schooling, with studies undertaken at institutes such as the Chicago Conservatory, St. Paul's College and Eastman College.

The pianist began playing professional club dates in New York City as a teenager and by the mid '40s had also already performed in Chicago, the west coast and Montreal. Like other jazzmen of his time, he considered it no disgrace to earn money backing up doo-wop groups such as The Embers. He also was something of a presence in the phonebook regarding accompanists for female singers. Burton was not only associated with Anita O'Day but the outrageous starlet Jane Russell, who certainly proved she could swing on the soundtrack to Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Critics, on the other hand, will inevitably prefer a blonde if that blonde is O'Day. While perhaps gratuitous, the mention of this film is effective in setting a sense of time and place, as in the '50s. It is no surprise that a man who could feed chords to Russell could make a reputation as a lounge pianist in Las Vegas during that decade.

This was also the period when the pianist began recording under his own name, taking advantage of every commercial format available. There were Joe Burton 78s as well as 45 singles, there were EPs and finally by 1956 there were albums in settings ranging from solo to trio to quartet, with some labels such as Savoy completely losing track of who all the other players were. Burton continued recording in the early '80s but had begun to concentrate more on teaching other pianists in the previous decade. Las Vegas seems to have had quite an influence on his son Joe Burton, a professional magician in the Nevada gambling mecca.

Eugene Chadbourne -All Music Guide