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Joseph Daley Tuba Trio

Jazz Trio

Joseph Daley

Recipient Information

Location

Lords Valley, Pennsylvania

Medium

Jazz Trio

Year of Award

2020

Grant or Fellowship

Jazz Road Tours Grant

Grant Amount

$5,810

Performances

About the Artist

After nearly 50 years of recognition as one of the consummate sidemen on the adventurous music scene – with remarkable artists like Sam Rivers, Carla Bley, Gil Evans, Charlie Haden, Muhal Richard Abrams, Taj Mahal and so many more – Joseph Daley has emerged as one of Jazz’ and contemporary music’s most extraordinary composers and leaders. Stunning musicians and fans alike with his brilliant 2011 CD, The Seven Deadly Sins, featuring his Earth Tones Ensemble (a full Jazz orchestra augmented by six additional low-tone horns, and including a seven-member rhythm section and four special guests), this powerfully innovative music mines the same rich vein of musical expression as that of immortals like Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington and George Russell, receiving rave reviews and making several Best of Year lists. In 2013 he followed up with The Seven Heavenly Virtues, then in 2014 Portraits: Wind, Thunder and Love which includes the five movement suite WispercussionFive Portraits of Warren Smith – both featuring string orchestras.

Drawing the attention of a number of prominent educators and university programs, since 2018 Joseph has become an in-demand and highly compelling educator, providing activities at various institutions in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Mexico, Washington, as well as a residency at Dartmouth College resulting in a performance of selections from The Seven Deadly Sins project. Plans for extended residencies are in motion for the future, including a week-long residency that will take place at Seattle Pacific University in January 2020, culminating in a full concert performance of The Seven Deadly Sins. Plans are also in place to repackage both Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues into a single CD entitled Sins and Virtues on his Jodamusic label in fall of 2019

In addition to his orchestral endeavors, Joseph is developing a significant reputation as a leader of smaller ensembles. In 2015, The Tuba Trio Chronicles – dedicated to his long time friend and mentor Sam Rivers, in whose Tuba Trio he performed extensively in the U.S. and Europe during the ‘70s and ‘80s – was released to high acclaim, and when time allowed three years later the ensemble toured in more than 15 U.S. cities in the spring of 2018. Joseph is also focused upon developing a series of life celebration projects dedicated to his late wife Wanda Daley, in which Joseph will use both his Tuba Trio Rituals Ensemble and Earth Tones Ensemble to realize this musical quest.