Joe Diorio

Joe Diorio's exceptional command of the guitar and inventive approach to improvisation established him as one of the most active session players on the jazz circuit throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In a review of a performance from the mid-1960s, prominent critic Leonard Feather characterized Diorio as "one of the most mature and uncompromising (new) plectrists to work the room since Joe Pass."

Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Diorio passed a substantial share of the early 1960s in Chicago, performing alongside such distinguished artists as saxophonist Sonny Stitt and trombonist Bennie Green. His initial recording credit appeared on tenor saxophonist Eddie Harris's 1961 album Exodus to Jazz.

Diorio moved to Miami, Florida, in the company of trumpet and saxophone player Ira Sullivan and soon secured a foothold in the city's active jazz circles. He worked with leading musicians that included Stan Getz, Freddie Hubbard, and Stanley Turrentine while also leading a trio that featured Bob Magnusson and Jim Plank.

Following the 1975 release of his first solo album, Solo Guitar, Diorio issued more than a dozen further recordings, among them tribute projects devoted to Wes Montgomery and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Diorio's interest in pedagogy originated with a jazz improvisation course he offered at the University of Miami and gradually became his primary focus. After settling in Los Angeles in the late 1970s, he joined the faculties of the studio/jazz guitar department at the University of Southern California and the GIT (Guitar Institute of Technology). He additionally authored several method books, among them Fusion and Intervallic Designs. Joe Diorio died on February 2, 2022 at the age of 85.