Joe Mondragon

A versatile and supportive bassist, Joe Mondragon appeared using the who’s who of jazz throughout a two-decade period. Self-taught on bass, Mondragon began functioning locally in LA. After serving within the Military, he was with Woody Herman’s First Herd in 1946. Then went in to the studios, dealing with a many top music artists and performers (mostly in the Western world Coastline). Among his many organizations on record had been June Christy, Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne, Pal Rich, Pal DeFranco, Marty Paich, Claude Williamson and many more. Mondragon, who documented the Duke Ellington Songbook with Ella Fitzgerald from 1956-57, was a fixture within the studios; one of the even more jazz-oriented soundtracks for movies that he made an appearance on had been The Crazy One and Pete Kelly’s Blues. Mondragon never really had an opportunity to lead a program of his personal.