Joe Barnes

The jazz guitarist Joe Barnes shows up on exactly one record, a tasty little item from 1948 that was released on the Fortune label. Considered to be the debut recording date of well-known trumpeter Donald Byrd, the session was under the leadership of Philadelphia tenor saxophonist Robert Barnes, and the obvious assumption is that he and the guitarist are related. The saxophonist, often known as Robert "Bootsie" Barnes, has continued on in music, mostly on the local hero level--which on the Philly jazz scene are some pretty tall boots to wear. The Barnes family is related to that of the late Duke Ellington clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton. The boys grew up in West Philly, with the Fortune recording session predating Robert Barnes' actual ascendency on the Philly jazz scene by a couple of years. Researchers who are able to find a copy of the sole Joe Barnes side in the used record pile can decide whether his presence on the date is the result of nepotism, or whether he was simply following a quite normal family syndrome in which at least one of the performing siblings drops out of the music business to pursue something "normal." He is not the same Joe Barnes who played banjo and guitar and used the stagename Red Brown. ~ Eugene Chadbournejazz guitarist Joe Barnes shows up on exactly one record, a tasty little item from 1948 that was released on the Fortune label. Considered to be the debut recording date of well-known trumpeter Donald Byrd, the session was under the leadership of Philadelphia tenor saxophonist Robert Barnes, and the obvious assumption is that he and the guitarist are related. The saxophonist, often known as Robert "Bootsie" Barnes, has continued on in music, mostly on the local hero level--which on the Philly jazz scene are some pretty tall boots to wear. ...