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Joe Morello
Joe was born on July 17, 1928, in Springfield, Mass. Having impaired vision since birth, he devoted himself to indoor activities. At the age of six, his family’s encouragement led him to study violin. Three years later, he was featured with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as soloist in the Mendelsohn Violin Concerto. At the age of twelve, he made a second solo appearance with the orchestra. But upon meeting and hearing his idol, the great Jascha Heifetz, Joe felt he could never achieve “that sound”. So, at the age of fifteen, Joe changed the course of his musical endeavors and began to study drums.
Joe’s first drum teacher, Joe Sefcik, was a pit drummer for all the shows in the Springfield area. He was an excellent teacher and gave Joe much encouragement. Joe began sitting in with any group that would allow it. When he was not sitting in, he and his friends, including Teddy Cohen, Chuck Andrus, Hal Sera, Phil Woods and Sal Salvador, would get together and jam in any place they could find. Joe would play any job he was called for. As a result, his musical experiences ranged from rudimental military playing to weddings and social occasions. Eventually, Mr. Sefcik decided it was time for Joe to move on. He recommended a teacher in Boston, the great George Lawrence Stone.
Mr. Stone did many things for Joe. He gave Joe most of the tools for developing technique. He taught Joe to read. But most important of all, he made Joe realize his future was in jazz, not “legitimate” percussion, as Joe had hoped. Through his studies with Mr. Stone, Joe became known as the best drummer in Springfield, and rudimental champion of New England.
Joe’s playing activity increased, and he soon found himself on the road with several groups. First, there was Hank Garland and the Grand Old Opry, and then Whitey Bernard. After much consideration, Joe left Whitey Bernard to go to New York City.
A difficult year followed, but with Joe’s determination and the help of friends like Sal Salvador, Joe began to be noticed. Soon he found himself playing with an impressive cast of musicians that included Gil Melle, Johnny Smith, Tal Farlow, Jimmy Raney, Stan Kenton and Marian McPartland. After leaving Marian McPartland’s trio, he turned down offers from the Benny Goodman band and the Tommy Dorsey band. The offer he chose to accept was a two-month temporary tour with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, which ended up lasting twelve-and-a half years. It was during the period that Joe’s technique received its finishing touches from Billy Gladstone of Radio City Music Hall.
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The Dave Brubeck Quartet: The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Live From The Northwest, 1959
by Mike Jurkovic
Like Elemental Music's previously unheard Bill Evans' set, Tales: Live in Copenhagen (1964), The Dave Brubeck Quartet, Live From The Northwest, 1959 may not hold the historical weight of other posthumous Brubeck releases, but it certainly displays the effortless virtuosity and invention the quartet brought to every gig, large or small, far and wide and in-between. Just months before Brubeck, alto saxophonist Paul Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright, and drummer Joe Morello would set the music world alight with Time Out (Columbia, 1959), Wally ...
Continue ReadingThe Dave Brubeck Quartet: The Dave Brubeck Quartet Live from the Northwest,1959
by Pierre Giroux
The Dave Brubeck Quartet Live from the Northwest,1959 was recorded in a moment of jazz history that showcased the quartet's exceptional musical prowess and Dave Brubeck's innovative approach to jazz composition. The album offers a vibrant snapshot of the group's improvisational energy and collective synergy exemplified by the four incomparable musicians, which, in addition to Brubeck, were Paul Desmond alto saxophone, Eugene Wright on bass and Joe Morello drums. This seven-track concert was recorded over two ...
Continue ReadingDave Brubeck Quartet: Debut In The Netherlands 1958: The Lost Recordings
by Chris May
For some people, the Dave Brubeck Quartet's catalogue starts with 1959's Time Out (Columbia) and ends with Time Further Out (Columbia) two years later. Verily, they know not what they are missing. The band was burning from 1951, when Brubeck and alto saxophonist Paul Desmond founded it, until 1967 and the breakup of the “classic" lineup. That lineup comprised Brubeck, Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright, who joined in early 1958, and drummer Joe Morello, who joined in late 1956, and it ...
Continue ReadingDave Brubeck: Live From Vienna 1967
by Edward Blanco
Considered one of the foremost exponents of the cool jazz style--despite often generating intense block-chorded heat as a pianist--Dave Brubeck was also known to lead the finest quartet bands in the jazz world. Of the several groups he led throughout his career, the most successful version was his classic quartet from 1958 to 1968 comprised of saxophonist Paul Desmond, bassist Eugene Wright and drummer Joe Morello. In what was to be the band's last tour in Europe in 1967, this ...
Continue ReadingDave Brubeck Trio: Live From Vienna 1967
by Mike Jurkovic
The lure of a lively good party has long made Hamburg, Germany, a global destination spot. Young and old, male and female, and all in between have, at one time or another, succumbed to the city's salacious history, its tantalizing port of entry, its raucous streets, denizens, and rathskellers. So, can we really judge or speculate (then and now) why Paul Desmond, famed saxophonist, composer, and one fourth of the great one mind that was The Dave Brubeck Quartet just ...
Continue ReadingDave Brubeck: Time OutTakes
by Stefano Merighi
Time OutTakes è il frutto della scoperta dell'insieme dei nastri giacenti nei vaults della Columbia, riguardanti il celebre album di Dave Brubeck, edito nel 1959. Come spesso accade per questo genere di operazioni, il supplemento di materiale che esce fuori dallo scavo coincide con versioni alternative dei medesimi brani della collezione definitiva (outtakes), ma anche con pezzi scartati dalla produzione--due in questo caso--oppure con la scoperta che in certi casi è bastata una sola “take" per essere soddisfatti ...
Continue ReadingThe Dave Brubeck Quartet: Time OutTakes
by Mike Jurkovic
When, for the first and the millionth time Paul McCartney is queried by lazy savants and crazed fans about what he would have cut from epic double White Album (Apple, 1968) to make it the strongest of the strongest single disc ever, the cutely weathered one just replies “It's the Beatles' bleedin' White Album, man" and the discussion, at least for that moment, is done. The fans and essayists will go on and on and on while he pursues other ...
Continue ReadingJoe Morello: Collections
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
On January 19, 1957, Art Pepper recorded Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section. The rhythm section in question was pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers and drummer Philly Joe Jones. Recorded for Contemporary, the album with Pepper and Miles Davis's rhythm section should have worked but didn't. For some reason, the song choices were tired, the playing was halting and the music was lackluster. Perhaps it was an uneven day for Pepper or he was intimidated, or both. In his ...
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Jazz Musician of the Day: Joe Morello
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All About Jazz is celebrating Joe Morello's birthday today!
Joe was born on July 17, 1929, in Springfield, Mass. Having impaired vision since birth, he devoted himself to indoor activities. At the age of six, his family’s encouragement led him to study violin. Three years later, he was featured with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as soloist in the Mendelsohn Violin Concerto. At the age of twelve, he made a second solo appearance with the orchestra. But upon meeting and hearing ...
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Celebrating Time Out: Bill Bruford on Joe Morello
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Jazz Online By Joseph Vella
In 2009, Dave Brubeck's musical masterpiece Time Out turned 50 and on behalf of Legacy Recordings, I produced a podcast series celebrating this timeless work. Along with interviewing Dave Brubeck himself about the album, I also interviewed three additional musicians saxophonist David Sanborn, bassist Mike Richmond and drummer Bill Bruford to discuss the influential work of Time Out band members, Paul Desmond, Eugene Wright and Joe Morello. For reasons beyond my scope, this series was never released. Upon hearing the ...
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Joe Morello, Springfield Native and Jazz Drummer (1928-2011)
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MassJazz: Jazz in Massachusetts
Joe Morello, drummer for the Dave Brubeck Quartet, died at his home in New Jersey on Saturday at age 82. A native of Springfield, Massachusetts, Morello was sight-impaired as a child and studied the violin, performing at age nine with Boston Symphony Orchestra as a soloist in the Mendelsohn Violin Concerto, according to his biography. He switched to the drums at age 15. Brubeck released a statement, saying: “Drummers worldwide remember Joe as one of the greatest drummers we have ...
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Joe Morello, Drummer with Dave Brubeck Quartet, Dies at 82
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AAJ Staff
Joe Morello, a jazz drummer whose elegant, economical playing in the Dave Brubeck Quartet sounded natural and effortless even in unusual time signatures, died on Saturday at his home in Irvington, N.J. He was 82. His death was announced on his Web site, joemorello.net. No cause was given. Mr. Morello was most famous for his tenure in Mr. Brubeck's band, in which he was engaged initially for a brief tour in 1955. He became a member in late 1956, and ...
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Joe Morello Said It
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JazzWax by Marc Myers
Joe Morello, long-time drummer in the Dave Brubeck Quartet, died on March 12. He was 82. In Doug Ramsey's superb book, Take Five: The Public and Private Lives of Paul Desmond, Doug writes of the song Take Five's origin: “Morello said that in concert he used to go into 5/4 time in the drum break of a Brubeck piece called Sounds of the Loop, which the group recorded in 1956 on its album Jazz Impressions of the USA." Doug then ...
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Joe Morello - R.I.P.
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Sound Insights by Doug Payne
Drummer Joe Morello, one of jazz's under-sung heroes, has died. Best known as the rhythmic timekeeper of multiple times in Dave Brubeck's famed quartet, when the quartet made some of its best-known recordings, Morello had lately become an in-demand clinician, teacher and bandleader whose former students numbered Danny Gottlieb, Max Weinberg, Gary Feldman and Jerry Granelli. Joe Morello, born July 17, 1928, in Springfield, Massachusetts, died on March 12, 2011, at his home in New Jersey. He was 82 years ...
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