Born in 1956, Joe started his life playing banjo and telling jokes at the age of six as a guest star on the Roy Rodgers Dale Evans television variety show on NBC. From there he went on to do spots on other shows shows working with Edgar Bergen, Dennis Day, Art Linkletter, Eddie Peabody and then went on to fame and fortune doing radio and television commercials "I want my Maypo!".
During his stint at Giannini Junior High school, he won an Epstien grant for classical piano - and picked up the bass during his time in junior high school and continued being a working musician, playing bass in the hotels and clubs around the bay area of San Francisco, and playing and recvording with musicians like Paul Horn and Eddie harris. He has been playing, recording and writing music ever since. After touring around the world and living in NYC, he has moved back to the bay area and now resides in Sonoma CA. where he enjoys taking care of dogs at his Doggie Bed and Breakfast.
Somebody Else’s Nightmare
Strength And Kindness
Review by Alex Henderson
Somebody Else’s Nightmare sounds like the name of a band that offers some type of very loud, edgy, brash, in-your-face rock: perhaps metal, perhaps industrial, perhaps punk, perhaps grunge. But the Sonoma, California-based Somebody Else’s Nightmare don’t sound anything like that. Strength and Kindness is not an album that is easy to pin down stylistically: this 52-minute CD doesn’t fit neatly into one particular category. But if one had to have a brief description of what it is that they do, the most appropriate would be “an appealing mixture of fusion, post-bop, soft rock, adult contemporary and soul-jazz.” A variety of direct or indirect influences assert themselves on this 2014 release, from Spyro Gyra, the Yellowjackets and McCoy Tyner to Paul Simon, Steely Dan and Michael Franks. On the vocal offerings (which include “Destination Nowhere” and the melancholy “Lonely Town”), it is clear that they appreciate the hipper, more creative side of 1970s/early 1980s soft rock and adult contemporary. “The Light Will Show the Way,” another vocal tune, combines jazzy alternative rap along the lines of Digable Planets, the Roots or Kuf Knotz with hints of vibist/singer Roy Ayers’ late 1970s/early 1980s recordings (which makes sense because many alternative rappers have sampled Ayers)
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Somebody Else’s Nightmare
Strength And Kindness
Review by The Grouch
This is a remarkably well made album by a group of very talented musicians. My personal favorite track on the album is: Yard Full of Joes - first of all the drummer lays down a funky beat that is just odd enough to be confusing, but not so out there as to make my brain hurt. Secondly the bass is just bad ass - then the horns come in and honest to God it blows my mind - I find myself grooving to what they are doing with a goofy smile on my face.
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Somebody Else’s Nightmare
Strength And Kindness
Review by Dan MacIntosh
Fortuitously, and also quite truthfully, CDbaby.com mentions Zawinul in its ‘Recommended if You Like’ section under Somebody Else’s Nightmare because a track called “Worker Bees” features a great Jaco Pastorius-like bass line – much like the sort he used to regularly contribute to the band Weather Report. (This, of course, was a Zawinul-led act). Strength and Kindness is a solid collection of jazz-fusion songs.
You usually think of electronic instrumentation when considering jazz-fusion music. However, this album’s title cut begins with an acoustic bass line, which is later joined by drums, then saxophone and piano. It’s a swinging, straight ahead jazz tune and quite likeable.
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