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Joey Baron


Drummer Joey Baron was born into a Jewish working class family in Richmond, Virginia.

He is largely self-taught by means of watching others play and listening to recordings, radio and television. His early influences ran the gamut from Ed Sullivan show guests, to "The Wild Wild West" television show theme to records by Art Blakey, Ray Charles, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, James Brown, The Beatles and Jimi Hendrix.

Besides being a member of the Bill Frisell Band for ten years until 1995, he has performed and recorded with an impressive list of musicians - including Carmen McRae, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Hampton Hawes, Chet Baker, Laurie Anderson, Art Pepper, Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Vinicus Cantuaria, Jay McShann, David Bowie, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Big Joe Turner, Philip Glass, John Abercrombie, Mel Lewis, Pat Martino, Harry Sweets Edison, David Sanborn, Al Jarreau, Jim Hall, Randy Brecker, Marian McPartland, John Scofield, Marc Johnson and The Lounge Lizards.

Joey has lead his own trios one with John Medeski and Marc Ribot; and "Barondown" which featured Ellery Eskelin (saxophone) and Josh Roseman (trombone). "Barondown" recorded three albums - Crackshot (Avant), RAIsed Pleasure Dot (New World) and Tongue in Groove (JMT).

He also co-lead the group "Miniature" (with Tim Berne and Hank Roberts) and was a member of "Naked City" (with John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith and Wayne Horvitz) and of Zorn's group Masada (Dave Douglas and Greg Cohen).

Joey's first release on the Songline / Tone Field series on Intuition was Down Home. The project featuresBaron's southern r&b-flavored original songs played by an all star band of Ron Carter, Arthur Blythe and Bill Frisell. "The most intriguing ensemble of the season," (New Yorker) "is not only all star, but fascinatingly so."(-Village Voice.) We'll Soon Find Out, the band's second album was released the summer of 2000. Both albums are produced by Lee Townsend.

Baron's main performing band is "Killer Joey", featuring guitarists Steve Cardenas and Brad Shepik as well as Tony Scherr on bass. They have a self-produced CD entitled Killer Joey with Shepik's predecessor, Adam Levy.

Occasionally, Joey still performs with "The Down Home Band" in a solo setting, with Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz, Vinicius Cantuaria, John Abercrombie and in a trio with pianist John Taylor and Marc Johnson on bass.

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16
Album Review

Eleonora Strino: I Got Strings

Read "I Got Strings" reviewed by Ian Patterson


There comes a before-and-after moment in any jazz musician's career with their first album as a leader. For Neapolitan guitarist Elenora Strino, I Got Strings marks a transition of sorts, from band member on the projects of pianist Dado Moroni and saxophonist Emanuele Cisi, to headline grabber in her own right. In fairness, Strino has led her own trios since 2016, but it usually takes the solid currency of one's own album to make the wider world sit up and ...

3
In Pictures

Open Jazz 2023

Read "Open Jazz 2023" reviewed by Luca A. d'Agostino


A collection of photos from the Open Jazz 2023 festival in Pordenone from June 28, 2023 to July 12, 2023 featuring Joey Baron, Robin Verheyen, Bram De Looze, Greg Burk, Mirko Cisilino, Ludovica Manzo, Matteo Bortone and Daniele Tittarelli. ...

Live Review

La Rassegna Mixité al PARC di Firenze

Read "La Rassegna Mixité al PARC di Firenze" reviewed by Neri Pollastri


Mixité P.A.R.C. ex Scuderie Granducali, Piazzale delle Cascine Firenze Aprile-Maggio 2023 Dopo le belle proposte ascoltate nel mese di dicembre 2022, Toscana Produzione Musica (centro di produzione musicale presieduto da Paolo Zampini con la direzione artistica di Maurizio Busìa e Francesco Mariotti) ha ripreso le attività su Firenze con la rassegna Mixité, presso il PARC, a fine marzo--una sorta di anteprima con il concerto di Amaro Freitas--concentrando una serie di proposte tra la fine ...

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Liner Notes

Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World

Read "Yelena Eckemoff: I Am a Stranger in This World" reviewed by Mark Sullivan


Russian-born pianist/composer Yelena Eckemoff began setting verses from the Bible's Book of Psalms shortly after her conversion to Christianity, even before her emigration to the United States. But she waited until she had considerable experience working with jazz musicians before producing her jazz arrangements. They were first recorded on her album Better Than Gold and Silver [L&H Production, 2018], which presented ten Psalm settings in both vocal and instrumental versions. The detailed story of how Yelena Eckemoff came to set ...

1
Album Review

Jakob Bro, Joe Lovano: Once Around the Room - A Tribute To Paul Motian

Read "Once Around the Room - A Tribute To Paul Motian" reviewed by Angelo Leonardi


Il magistrale percorso da leader di Paul Motian, esploso negli anni ottanta nel trio con Joe Lovano e Bill Frisell, ha avuto significativi tributi a partire dal 2011, l'anno della sua scomparsa: ricordiamo lo String Choir di Joel Harrison, il collettivo Motian Sickness di Jeff Cosgrove, il solo piano di Russ Lossing (Drum Music) e quello successivo di Jean-Marc Padovani (Motian in Motion). Rispetto a questi, il tributo del collettivo guidato da Joe Lovano e Jakob Bro ...

9
Album Review

Jakob Bro / Joe Lovano: Once Around the Room

Read "Once Around the Room" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


The thrumming double basses of Larry Grenadier and Thomas Morgan initiate the conversation. Then the scattered insistence of rhythm by drummers Joey Baron and Jorge Rossy enters, pushing Once Around the Room into consciousness with all the anticipation and hushed intent of an orchestra tuning before a performance. Airy clusters of guitar courtesy of Jakob Bro and electric bassist Anders Christensen introduce Joe Lovano's aching call summoning the spirit to make known “As It Should Be," the first of the ...

2
Album Review

Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas Soundprints: Other Worlds

Read "Other Worlds" reviewed by Vic Albani


Stile e ricercatezza. La cifra di questo nuovo lavoro di due giganti del jazz contemporaneo quali Joe Lovano e Dave Douglas è tutta in questi due vocaboli. Sound Prints (che richiama nel nome la ben celebre “Footprints" fermata dal signor Wayne Shorter) è il nome del quintetto titolare di questo progetto nato nel 2013 per Blue Note per festeggiare con un disco dal vivo l'ottantesimo compleanno del grandissimo sassofonista del New Jersey e per dare nuova linfa e ...

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1

Recording

Half Note Announces A New Release From Lee Konitz, Enfants Terribles, Featuring Bill Frisell, Gary Peacock, Joey Baron

Half Note Announces A New Release From Lee Konitz, Enfants Terribles, Featuring Bill Frisell, Gary Peacock, Joey Baron

Source: Antje Hübner

Available In Stores And Online September 25, 2012 Enfants Terribles features four veteran jazzmen whose collective efforts on stage and in the studio span decades. Together they are saxophonist Lee Konitz, guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Joey Baron. Individually, each boasts a distinguished career path and network of associations representing jazzʼs wide range of stylistic directions. (Konitz alone began professionally in 1945.) Recorded live at the Blue Note, Enfants Terribles finds the group surveying tunes well-known to ...

106

Recording

Joey Baron - Tongue in Groove (2004)

Joey Baron - Tongue in Groove (2004)

Source: Something Else!

By Tom Johnson Drummer Joey Baron's Baron down, featuring Steve Swell on trombone and Ellery Eskelin on tenor sax comes across like the mischievous little brother to John Zorn's Masada. More than that, the only way to adequately describe the sound of Barondown is to compare it to big brother Masada, but only if Masada got really drunk one night before a show, and since bassist Greg Cohen missed his bus for the gig, the band just got up on ...

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Interview

Drummer Joey Baron Interviewed at AAJ

Drummer Joey Baron Interviewed at AAJ

Source: All About Jazz

Combining technical acuity with a deep sense of groove, Joey Baron drums with playful exuberance. Throughout his more than 35-year career, he's propelled experimentalists like guitarist Bill Frisell and saxophonist John Zorn, as well as mainstreamers like vocalist Carmen McRae and saxophonist David Sanborn. He's even played with pop stars David Bowie and Marianne Faithfull. But Baron makes no distinctions between gigs, keeping an expansive, welcoming view of music. After leading the groups Barondown, Down Home, and Killer Joey, he's ...

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

I Got Strings

CAM Jazz
2023

buy

I Am a Stranger in...

L&H Production
2022

buy

O, Sun

Tzadik
2022

buy

Other Worlds

Greenleaf Music
2021

buy

Night Vision

From: At Sunset
By Joey Baron

Videos

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