Joe La Barbera

Joe La Barbera is best-known to be part of Costs Evans’ last trio (1978-1980) along with bassist Marc Johnson but he has remained greatly in-demand up for this time. Younger sibling of tenor saxophonist Pat La Barbera and arranger-trumpeter John La Barbera, Joe was originally trained drums by his dad Joseph La Barbera before learning with Alan Dawson during his period at Berklee (1966-1968). La Barbera toured with vocalist Frankie Randall, spent 2 yrs in the Military, toured with Woody Herman’s Big Music group and was with Chuck Mangione’s extremely popular music group (1973-1977). Over time freelancing in NY, La Barbera toured the globe with Costs Evans, producing many recordings within among the pianist’s finest groupings. The drummer’s tasteful and rousing playing motivated both Evans and Johnson. Following the pianist’s loss of life, La Barbera toured with Tony Bennett and settled in LA. Through the ’80s and 90s, he proved helpful steadily within a many situations, learning to be a fixture in LA region clubs and sometimes leading his very own quintet. Joe La Barbera provides appeared on ratings of recordings where his simple yet swinging design uplifts every program.