Joe Evans (musician)
Joseph James " Joe" Evans ( born October 7, 1916 in Pensacola, Florida; † January 17, 2014 in Richmond, Virginia ) was an American jazz musician ( alto and baritone saxophone, clarinet) and music producer and the late swing and the Rhythm & Blues era.
Life and work
Evans began his career in Pensacola, where he had saxophone lessons and played with local bands. Through his cousin, the jazz trumpeter Buddy Johnson, he came up with 23 years in New York City, where in 1939 he was a member of the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. Then he played with Cam Williams, where he replaced Charlie Parker. In 1942 he played with Hot Lips Page and Jay McShann, then at Sil Austin, Paul Williams, Lionel Hampton, Jimmy Lunceford, Cab Calloway and Louis Armstrong. Evans looked at 1944 pictures of Mary Lou Williams (Song in My Soul / Lady, Be Good, inter alia, with Bill Coleman and Coleman Hawkins ), 1945 came other recordings with Floyd " Horsecollar " Williams and Dud Bascomb.
Beginning in 1945, Evans took for J. Mayo Williams' label in Chicago, where he led a combo with Jesse Drakes, Duke Jordan, Gene Ramey, JC Heard and Etta Jones. In the following years he was a member of the swing bands of Andy Kirk, Claude Hopkins and Lionel Hampton ( Air Mail Special, Clef 1955). In the field of jazz, he was involved 1944-1957 to 28 recording sessions, except those mentioned, at Hot Lips Page (1947 ), Eddie Wilcox (1949 /50), Ivory Joe Hunter ( 1950-54 ), Amos Milburn, and most recently in Hal Singer Orchestra.
In the early 1960s, Evans went with the Motown Revue on tour, where he among other things, R & B singers and bands Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations and Martha and the Vandellas accompanied. As a studio musician, he has participated in numerous recordings of the Detroit Motown label. In 1961, Joe Evans his own record label Carnival Records, for its productions he participated also arranged and as a musician. One of the most successful releases of the label included the The Manhattans. After he had sat down to rest as a producer, he studied at Essex County College in Newark and earned an associate's degree in 1973. With a grant from the Ford Foundation, he sette continued his studies at Rutgers University, where in 1975 he earned the Master of Education. Subsequently, Evans worked in the administration of the State of New Jersey. After his retirement he moved to Richmond, Virginia. In 2008 he published his autobiography, Follow Your Heart ( University of Illinois Press ), which he had written with Christopher Brooks, a professor of anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University.