Now that I have been able to live my passion of playing music fulltime for the past two years, the nagging question of “Why doesn’t everyone follow their passion?”, persist in my mind.
Now I know making this too simplistic will come across as nieve and that isn’t my intention. I almost feel like if everyone did what they were put here on this earth to do, we would not only have every position filled but everyone in those positions would be happy and they would be the best at what they do.
At one point, I owned a couple of technology type companies. Yeah, I could sell really well, I was good with people, I was organized but it wasn’t my calling.
So in 2011, I decided to walk away from that life. Didn’t you all notice you were missing a great businessman in the world!!? Of course not, you gained a musician who wanted to share his talent and the gift he was given.
Don’t you think the world is a better place because of it? I do… 🙂
I still think the easiest way to come up with what you were put on this earth to do, is make a list and the entire premise of the list should be based around, “If money wasn’t a deciding factor, I would…” OR better yet, “If I had all the money in the world, what I would like to do with my life is…”
Start making your list TODAY!! Life is too short to live someone else’s life, someone else’s passion, someone else’s dream.
Joe was born in New York State and moved to The Big Apple after graduating college with a music performance degree.
During the early years of Joe’s career in NYC, he performed in various groups with some of the best jazz musicians in the world. He has performed with bassist Ben Wolfe, trumpeter Joe Magnarelli, saxophonist Jerry Weldon, trumpeter Tom Harrell and pianist Joel Weiskopf to name a few. When not touring, Harry Connick Jr. and musicians from his band would sit in with Joe’s jazz quartet.
In addition to Joe’s jazz chops, he is an accomplished rock, blues, funk and pop drummer who spent many years recording and touring the east coast music scene and regularly performed at national festivals.
In 2004, Joe left NY for the southwest in search of warmer weather, new industry connections and more opportunities to tour and record. His pocket groove, stylistic approach and the depth & breadth of his musical knowledge, was greeted with open arms.
Joe stays busy with a heavy regional live performance schedule, touring to other parts of the country, recording drum/percussion tracks for various artists and giving back through his clinics. In addition to his time spent behind the kit, Joe runs JC Productions, which books music for a variety of venues and bands.
When in Arizona, Joe often performs with well-known organist Papa John DeFrancesco. Joe has also performed with Joey DeFrancesco, Johnny DeFrancesco and Francine Reed.
