Joe Albany

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Joseph Albani (b. January 24, 1924 in Atlantic City, New Jersey d. January 11, 1988 in New York: Known as "Joe Albany") was a jazz pianist. It is remarked on his being among the few white pianists to have played Bebop with Charlie Parker.

He had studied piano as a child and by 1943 he was working on the West Coast in Benny Carter's orchestra. In 1946 he was playing with Parker and also Miles Davis. He continued for a few years afterward and was on an album by Warne Marsh album in 1958. Despite that most of the 1950s and 1960s saw him battling a heroin addiction or living in seclusion in Europe. He also had several unsuccessful marriages in the period. He returned to jazz in the 1970s and produced a few albums.

He was the focus of a documentary in 1980 titled Joe Albany ... A Jazz Life and his daughter Amy Jo "AJ" wrote the memoir Low Down: Junk, Jazz, and Other Fairy Tales From Childhood concerning him. The book received favorable reviews.[1]