Joe LaBarbera


Joseph James LaBarbera is an American jazz drummer and composer. He is best known for his recordings and live performances with the trio of pianist Bill Evans in the final years of Evans's career. His older brothers are saxophonist Pat LaBarbera and trumpeter John LaBarbera.

Career

He grew up in Mount Morris, New York. His first drum teacher was his father. For two years in the late 1960s, he attended Berklee College of Music, then went on tour with singer Frankie Randall. After Berklee he spent two years with the US Army band at Fort Dix, New Jersey. He began his professional career playing with Woody Herman and the Thundering Herd.
His reputation grew in the 1970s when he spent four years recording and touring with Chuck Mangione. He also worked as a sideman for Bob Brookmeyer, Jim Hall, Art Farmer, Art Pepper, John Scofield, Toots Thielemans, and Phil Woods. In 1979 and 1980, he was a member of the Bill Evans Trio with bassist Marc Johnson, then spent much of the 1980s and early 1990s with Tony Bennett. He was in a quartet with his brother Pat and in a trio with Hein van de Geyn and John Abercrombie. He has taught at the California Institute of the Arts and the Bud Shank Jazz Workshop.
In 2021, LaBarbera, with writer and jazz critic Charles Levin, published a memoir about his time in the Bill Evans Trio, titled Times Remembered: The Final Years of the Bill Evans Trio.

Discography

As leader

  • The Joe La Barbera Quintet Live
  • Mark Time
  • Love Locked Out, with Patti Wicks and Keter Betts
  • Native Land
  • ''Silver Streams''

    As sideman

With Tony Bennett
With Rosemary Clooney
With Bill Cunliffe
With Bill Evans
With John LaBarbera
  • 2003 On the Wild Side
  • 2005 Fantazm
  • 2013 Caravan
With Pat LaBarbera
With Chuck Mangione
With Bud Shank
  • 1996 Plays the Music of Bill Evans
  • 1999 After You Jeru
  • 2000 Silver Storm
  • 2002 On the Trail
  • 2009 Fascinating Rhythms
With Kim Richmond
  • 1994 Range
  • 1999 Look at the Time
  • 2001 Ballads
With Terry Trotter and Trotter Trio
  • 1993 It's About Time
  • 1995 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum...In Jazz
  • 1995 Company...In
  • 1995 Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd in Jazz
  • 1996 The Michel Legrand Album
  • 1997 Sketches on Star Wars
  • 1998 Follies
  • 2001 The Fantasticks in Jazz
With others