Joe Diorio is one of the legends in Jazz guitar and is held in high regard by his students and his fans. Joe Diorio preformed extensively in the 1960s and the 1970s making him one of the busiest Jazz session guitarists of his time.
Joe Diorio started playing the guitar after hearing his uncle play. His uncle was a accomplished guitar player and also played the mandolin and banjo. His family does have the music influence as his dad also was a guitar player and had a good collection of records with him like Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Boogie-Woogie and Django Reinhardt. Diorio grew his interest in guitar listening to his phonograph. He then started improving himself by sitting with professionals in New Haven and Hartfort. He also started attending Jazz gigs every Friday and Saturday. Though he was not paid initially, he joined them as he was learning a lot about jazz. Using a fake ID, Joe got into major gigs like Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins trio, Art Tatum, Phineas Newborn, Count Basie and Bird.
He started playing for a circus band and toured with them. It was this time that he entered Chicago through his cousin a guitarist in Chicago. Joe Diorio soon became famous in Chicago and started playing with jazz greats like Von Freeman, Billy Wallace, Jodie Christian, Harold Jones, Bill Yancey, Ira Sullivan, Sonny Stitt, Bennie Green and Willie Pickens.
After a long guitar carrier he got into teaching music at the University of Miami and then at the University of Southern California and the Guitar Institute of Technology.
Diorio’s first album “Solo Guitar” in 1975 followed many albums. Joe Diorio has written many inspirational and tutorial books on Jazz guitar. His recent book “Intervallic Designs” teaches about pentatonic playing using fourths and fifths. Joe has also released videos on guitar playing.