Joe Taino

Infobox Musical artist
Joe Taino =
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Jose Abella =
Joe Taino =
birth date and age|1955|11|10 San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA=
guitar =
Jazz, Blues, Rock =

Joe Taino (born Jose Rafael Abella November 10, 1955)

Joe Taino is a native Puerto Rican residing in Vauxhall, New Jersey. He became interested in music after watching the Beatles’ movie A Hard Day’s Night, when he was nine years old and growing up in Puerto Rico.

He got his first guitar when he was eleven and says that he started learning “everything he could get this hands on.” His early influences were The Beatles, Elvis, The Monkeys, Cream, Jimi Hendrix and Santana, and others.

He became interested in the Blues after listening to Eric Clapton’s Sleepy Time and Sitting on Top of the World. From that point on he did nothing but play records and listen to English speaking stations where they played rock and roll, jazz, rhythm and blues and Blues and occasionally Blues by artists like B.B. King ,Albert King, Freddie King, Etta James, T-Bone Walker and Taj Mahal.”

Soon after his Dad bought him his first electric guitar at age thirteen, Jose started playing in a band called “The Flower Generation”.

They performed mostly at school dances and private house parties for $5 per man, or all you could eat. At sixteen, he put his own band together, buying a PA system and a truck.

Joe Taino got his first professional gigs at the Puerto Rico USO Naval Stations and the rock clubs in San Juan. Jose adopted the name “Taino” due to his Indian looks and background, and soon named the band “Taino Band.”

In 1978 Joe joined Marion Hite, a Kentucky native, playing country and western music. Joe also played Top 40 gigs at the hotels in the famous resort area of Condado, and put together what became the hottest rock band of all time in Puerto Rico, “Pelican in Flight”

While playing with “Pelican in Flight,” Joe Taino shared stages with artists like U.K., Judas Priest, Kansas, Billy Idol, Cindy Lauper, Peter Frampton, Pat Travers, Rick Derringer, Ronnie Montrose, Cheap Trick and many others.

But it was the Blues that captivated Joe’s soul, Rock isn’t what he wanted to do. He then moved to Florida and tried to establish himself as a Blues musician.

As a Puerto Rican, it was difficult to be recognized as a Blues man.

It took an immense effort to become recognized as a Blues Artist in Florida with Joe joining many bands, including the late Big Mama Blue.

Eventually, Joe became widely renowned in the South and put his own band together, “Hot and Humid”.

By the early 1980s Joe was doing well enough to open shows for artists like, The Allman Brothers, Johnny Winter, John Mayall, Robin Trower, Koko Tailor, Ruth Brown and Jaco Pastorius, with whom he spent the few months before Jaco’s death, hanging out, jamming and sharing ideas.

In those years, Blues gigs were few and far between, and Joe would not settle for playing Top 40, the prevalent scene in Florida. After Jaco died he packed his things and moved to New York City, where he had lived briefly in 1976.

New York welcomes superior talent, after a few months of attending jam sessions and meeting people, word of Joe’s expertise began spreading. He was soon working as a sideman with a number of top bands in the city.

His amazing style and guitar wizardry made him the highlight of every show. The time was right for the next step. He formed his own band and changed his stage name from “Taino” to “Joe Taino and the Blue Flames”, in honor of his idol Jimi Hendrix (Jimmy James and the Blue Flames).

Success was inevitable. The band released CDs in the USA under their own label, and in Europe under Provogue Records.

Discography

----"Incognito","Best of Joe Taino","Blues With an Accent","Hoodoo Man","Pickin the Blues","Chewin That stuff","Unlimited","Visions and Games" (Pelican in Flight),"No Problem" (Tom Stinson Trio)

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[http://www.joetaino.com/]