Left Behind from From The Soul (Blue Note - 1991)

Post-Berklee, after six weeks on the road backing Tom Jones, Joe returned to Cleveland. With his reputation ascending, he soon got the call from Dr. Lonnie Smith, who was living in Detroit at the time. Joe joined the organist for a series of gigs in the Motor City, as well touring on the Chitlin circuit in 1974.

A six month tenure with Brother Jack McDuff and the Heating System was next. The album Joe recorded with Dr. Lonnie Smith, Afrodesia, started getting a lot of airplay on Jazz radio across the country at that same time, resulting some early name recognition when Joe worked new clubs with McDuff.

"I was used to being in a multicultural world, playing with my dad and his bands, so when I started working the Chitlin circuit with Lonnie, I was pretty much the only white cat in the club. In this music, you’re on testing ground all the time, and every time you come through it into the sunshine, you stand taller.”

Eventually, the group played New York, the real Jazz proving grounds, for Joe’s first Carnegie Hall gig, and in Harlem, at the Club Barron. Playing in New York was so intoxicating that Joe moved to Manhattan. He began sitting in with friends, and ended up working with Chet Baker at Stryker’s, and Albert Daley at Folk City, as well as sitting in with Rashied Ali at his club, Ali’s Alley. The city was a hotbed of music at the time, with a flourishing loft scene at Sam River’s Studio Rivbea, and Ladies Fort, and an exciting lineup at the lower east side club, the Tin Palace.