JOE BAGG

Born and raised in Southern California, Joe started playing by ear on a toy xylophone at an early age. His parents quickly got him a piano teacher, and Joe took piano lessons for a few years after that. He discovered jazz while in college and immediately changed his major from computer science to music. Upon hearing that jazz pianist Kenny Barron was teaching at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Joe enrolled in the graduate program there and obtained his Masters degree, studying with Barron for two years. After a couple years in the Army, as a Russian linguist stationed in Germany, Joe moved back to the states to California, where he has been a fixture on the Los Angeles jazz scene. In 1997, Joe started playing the Hammond B-3 organ after meeting organist Larry Goldings in New York. Since arriving in L.A., Joe has played and/or recorded with most of read more...