We recently connected with Joe Kennedy and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Joe thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Taking risks is important and vital to the growth and development in this field. As an entertainer I like to push my limits, and reach that step just beyond comfort where new experiences can be found. Playing with more advanced players, and learning how to interpret the musical language they are sharing is risky. Learning the ropes of this business and the different ways musical entertainment is conducted in different genres of music takes time, and the differences are numerous. Mistakes will be made, failures will happen. How you recover, learn, and grow from those experiences will help shape you as a player.

I have had gigs where I was the youngest and most inexperienced player on the bandstand. One evening I was working with a very respected trumpet player in New Orleans, Wendell Brunious, and he asked me if I knew a certain song. I told him I had listened to it but had not played it before. He told me we’d be fine and started the tune. I didn’t catch the chord changes the first time around, and on the second time while he was taking his first solo I messed up. Mr. Brunious did not vibe me, he didn’t single me out, he didn’t stop the tune to run me down and he didn’t make a scene. What he did do was put his horn in his lap, lean over to me and quietly tell me the chord changes I was missing. I felt embarrassed at the time. He just let it go. Many other players might have handled that differently. I was so humbled while being thankful for how he handled it. I was never made to feel inadequate, small, inferior, or less than. He kept me included, brought me up, and taught me a valuable lesson about how to handle that situation with style and grace. He allowed me to keep face while schooling me. I never felt that there was malice or ill intent behind his actions. I will forever be thankful for how he made me feel in the moment of failing live on stage.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a jazz and blues pianist and vocalist. I was born and raised in the midwest and was performing with players in the Milwaukee and Chicago blues scenes when I was still a teenager. I started gigging when I was 16, and haven’t had a job outside of music since I was 20. I was mentored by local players and encouraged to keep trying. This was before youtube, and the rise of the instantly accessible information found on the internet. I would go sit in with some professional players and they would take me aside after and tell me what I did well, and what I needed to work on. They’d also suggest players to go to the library and check out the cd and cassettes to hear how the songs go. I’d do my homework and go back the next week and try again. This mentorship took place from the time I was 15, until I finished my bachelors degrees at 23. They taught me many aspects of performing that I still use today. I learned how to be a supportive side man, how to front a gig and lead a band, how to sit in with players I’ve never met or worked with, and how to break into a scene.

After completing my undergraduate studies I moved to Las Vegas to attend UNLV for my Masters of Music in Jazz Performance. The skills I had picked up from my earlier experiences helped me break into the music scene in Las Vegas.

Once finished at UNLV I took a risk and moved to New Orleans. I have been here since 2009. I once again tapped in to the skills I learned as a young beginner to break into the scene and network into gigs. These skills have allowed me to navigate the gig sector and work into some very talented player pools. I am thankful for the lessons I learned along the way and wrote a book about these skills and tactics. I am also licensed in K-12 Instrumental Music so I aligned the book topics to NAfME Music Education Standards and am currently developing a workshop/masterclass for a band of professional musicians to go to a school, sit in with their students, offer constructive criticism, and give a concert demonstrating the skills covered in the masterclass.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Since writing my book, Spread The Jam, my mission is to get more musicians sharing in this vast landscape of possibilities. I want to show the beginners how they can start this musical process of learning, trying, failing, and trying again in any musical style. There isn’t one perfect way or one right way. There are many possibilities and success looks different for everyone. I know that my early development under the mentorship of experienced players was not an experience that is available to all beginners. I want to show through my book, masterclasses and workshops that they can seek out these learning experiences and develop their craft. They can create the opportunities by forming the community that they want to be a part of. They are not alone in this pursuit. They will find camaraderie and likeminded peers. It will take time, and there will be setbacks, but those are the periods that you must forge through and keep going.

That’s what is currently driving my creative journey. I want to show others how they too can find a path or forge a path that gets them to the community they are after and demonstrate the tactics used and needed, but also inform them that they don’t have to do what I did. They have to do what is right for them, but use the paths of those who have come before to inform your route.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Do not expect cookie cutter, carbon copied, homogenous art/music. The music that’s found being performed in Topeka, KS is likely different than the music in Miami, FL. That’s good! I moved to New Orleans because I wanted to play the old jazz, blues, and New Orleans styles. They make me feel revitalized. The grooves, the themes, the history, and the feel is one of a kind. I have played many types of gigs and a very diverse set of genres, but I am most happy and most fulfilled playing New Orleans music. As a non-native I try to respect the music and culture and listen to many examples of how it has been done here by notable artists and the players that wrote and developed the styles I play. I want to be informed and influenced by their work and reflect that in my interpretations.

For society, this can look like taking in the local sights and sounds of the art/music/creative scene. If I go to the Appalachian Mountains I don’t want to hear Brown Eyed Girl, I want to hear something that’s specific to that scene and location. If I went to Texas and other Southwest states I might seek out Mariachi Bands. Society can appreciate the diversity of musical styles and art and look beyond just what they are familiar with. Also, share what you find. If you see some amazing art, or interpretive dance on a trip somewhere, share it with others, Share a website, or a social media page, or a picture or video you take. Growth happens in the uncomfortable parts.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bigjoekennedy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigjoekennedy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bigjoekennedy
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/bigjoekennedy
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/bigjoekennedy