Sir Joeâ??s professional musical career began like many other rhythm and blues performance and recording artists. He played in local bands and sang in church, in school and on city street corners with some of his friends. He sung lead with the first [+]Sir Joeâ??s professional musical career began like many other rhythm and blues performance and recording artists. He played in local bands and sang in church, in school and on city street corners with some of his friends. He sung lead with the first singing group he joined, â??The Knights." This is where he adopted the name â??Sir Joe." He was a Knight and so were the other members: Lord Murdock, Count McVay, Duke Barnes, and Sir Walter Lee. Many entertainers adopted a prefix to their name back in the day (Little, Big, Bad, Count, Duke, etc.)
Joeâ??s love for music and the stage inspired him to perform and record as much as he could. He formed a recording group â??Sir Joe and The Maidensâ? after most of the knights went into the armed services. This female group with Joe out front recorded a few local hits, performed on local TV and did some personal appearances (mid â??60â??s). Joe later join a popular local band (The EL Corols) and was provided the opportunity to play trumpet as backup for stars like Chuck Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Otis Redding, The Temptations and many other national acts. Members of the El Corols band, including Joe, formed a touring bad called â??The Magnificent Sevenâ? and began traveling extensively with Garnet Mimms. The band backed other acts when Garnet was not working. (Hank Ballard, Little Richard, Gene Chandler, and others (late 60â??s).
Joe left the Magnificent Seven to play jazz trumpet with a local group, The Orlando Smith Quintet. It turned out to a complete learning experience for Joe. The group played the entire summer season of 1970 at Club Harlem in Atlantic City, New Jersey. During this time is when Joe felt he was confident enough to step out front with his own band. From this jazz group Sir Joe & FreeSoul was formulated. The name FreeSoul was adopted because of the free spirited music style the jazz and R&B musicians played and the free soul sound was born. Joe mixed his jazzy horn playing with the funky rhythms of the time and added a few socially conscious lyrics and he had his first hit record, â??I Got So Much Trouble In My Mind.â?
Joeâ??s hit tune provided for him and his band the opportunity to share the stage with James Brown, Ray Charles, Earth Wind & Fire, Sly Stone, The Oâ??Jays and many other world
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