Joe Diorio (1936-2022)

Joe Diorio, a guitarist whose soulful playing on albums by Sonny Stitt and Eddie Harris gave those recordings a special feel and whose pensive, ringing tones and polytextures on solo albums influenced fusion guitarists, died on February 2. He was 85.

Diorio grew up in Westbury, Ct., and learned to play guitar at a local music school in the 1950s. Gigging in New York, he stood out with a jagged technique that focused on heart rather than perfection, traditional jazz chords or flash.

Following a stroke in 2005, Diorio worked hard to regain the use of his left hand. Many of his best recordings were solo albums, where you could hear him zig and zag on the instrument as he pulled together strings of ideas with a pecking style that sometimes overlapped lead lines, strumming, note-bending and oddly voiced chords all at once. This octopus-like approach made you think two or three guitarists were playing. In the end, he was an original.   

Here are 10 of my favorite Joe Diorio tracks:

Here's Diorio with the Lou Levy Quartet backing Herb Jeffries on Unforgettable, his first recording session on If I Were King in the late 1950s..



Here's Alicia, with Eddie Harris (ts), Willie Pickens (p), Joe Diorio (g), Bill Yancey (b) and Harold Jones (d), from Eddie Harris's Exodus to Jazz (1961)...



Here's The Lady Is a Tramp, with Sonny Stitt (ts), Nicky Hill (ts), Eddie Buster (org), Joe Diorio (g) and Gerald Donovan (d), from Move on Over (1963)...



Here's The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, with Bennie Green (tb), Sonny Stitt (ts), Bobby Buster (org), Joe Diorio (g) and Dorrell Anderson (d), from My Main Man in 1964...



Here's Really?, with Eddie Harris (ts), Joe Diorio (g) and a wordless vocal by an unknown vocalist, from Eddie Harris's Come on Down!...



Here's Sonnymoon for Two/Four Score, with Wally Cirillo (p) and Joe Diorio (g), from Rapport in 1973...



Here's Nuages from Solo Guitar (1975)...



Here's Joe playing solo The Gentle Rain, from Peaceful Journey (1977)...



Here's Maids of Cadiz, with Bob Brookmeyer (v-tb), Tom Ranier (p), Joe Diorio (g), Monty Budwig (b), Billy Higgins (d) and Willie Bobo (perc), from Monty Budwig's Dig (1978)...



Here's Love, Your Magic Spell Is Everywhere, with Conte Candoli and Pete Candoli (tp,flhrn), Lou Levy (p), Joe Diorio (g), Fred Atwood (b) and John Dentz (d), from The Candoli Brothers (1978)...



Bonus: Here's Joe's complete Italy album, recorded in Munich, Germany, in 1989. Absolutely gorgeous and shows off all of his technques..