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Blues Joe X was born in 1965 in the industrial suburbs of Naples (Italy). He met The Blues for the first time when he was just 11. John Lee Hooker’s warm and sensual sound captivated and led him towards what would become the meaning of his life: The Guitar.
Blues music becomes Joe’s route to escape from a hard family situation. For example, his first memory is when, just 4, he can’t kneel on a chair to reach the dinner table because his knees are completely covered with shallow and deep cuts: his father has thrown him through a glass door... and the door was closed. Just from this single episode and listening to his music, it is easy to understand what Joe means when he says that music has been his psychological and physical salvation.
At age 13, after having done heavy jobs like loader and potato picker for two months, Blues Joe X can buy his first electric guitar and start to learn to play it. At the beginning, he does that by ear, listening to those unobtainable albums of American bluesmen (which cost him long journeys through Italy and the name ‘Peppe ò Blues’, which is the Neapolitan expression for ‘Blues Joe’ and will become his stage-name later). Aged 16, he takes private tuitions of jazz guitar technique and improvisation, paid by doing manual labour.
The turning point is in 1984, when he attends clinics at Umbria Jazz and plays with Curtis Fuller, George Adams (R.I.P.) and Dannie Richmond (R.I.P.). The following year, BJX is chosen for playing in the Umbria Jazz Clinics Big Band, opening concerts for Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers (R.I.P.) and Stevie Ray Vaughan (R.I.P.). He also wins a scholarship to attend the Berklee College Of Music (Boston, USA).
Thanks to teachers like Kevin Eubanks, Jim Kelly, Al De Fino, Larry Monroe and Orville Wright, Joe X develops a fine instrumental technique and more importantly the music theory. Above all, he realises that music is the expression of the mind.
In 1987, Blues Joe X moves to New York where he continues to study with Kevin Eubanks. Living in the Bronx and playing in jazz venues where white people are hardly admitted, this year is extremely formative for his maturity both as musician and as man.
Back to Italy in 1988, BJX is ready to tour with his own band, 101 Jazz Workshop. The band establish themselves thanks to their contemporary sound, ranging from Charles Mingus to John Coltrane. They have the opportunity to play in several jazz venues and festivals, receiving highly positive reviews in jazz magazines (such as Musica Jazz, the most influential Italian one). Two of the most outstanding experiences for the 101 Jazz Workshop are the opening for Bobby Watson at Campania Jazz Festival and for Miriam Makeba at Bacoli Jazz Festival.
In 1989, Blues Joe X feels like coming back to the simpler and more direct language of his first love, The Blues. Therefore, he builds his own blues trio up, the Hell’s Cobra Blues Band. Their characteristic and innovative heavy-blues sound excites the Italian audience and press.
After more than 1000 gigs and concerts throughout Italy and Europe, in 1997 Blues Joe X produces his first album, Living On The Road. This masterpiece leads the Hell's Cobra Blues Band to set up a majestic show with the collaboration of the Indian Bikers and to tour for 2 years.
After various collaborations with international musicians which Blues Joe X has enjoyed in Italy and during his multiple trips to the States, in 2000 he records his second album, In The Name Of Love. This contains only original tracks with the exception of a tribute dedicated to one of his greatest idols ... Jimi Hendrix. The rock/blues/funk sound of his first album is integrated with new psychedelic and southern-rock elements with a smattering of hip-hop in a song dedicated to the boxer Mike Tyson.
During his 25 years career, world class musicians have wanted BJX to play with them, some of which include: Buddy Miles (R.I.P.), Otis Rush, Junior Wells (R.I.P.), Michael Coleman (Muddy Waters’ guitarist), Sugar Blue (the harmonica player in Rolling Stones’ "Miss you"), Shirley King (B. B. King’s daughter), Sammy Fender and Sharon Clarke (Albert King and Tina Turner’s choir member). He has also opened concerts for Canned Heat, Charlie Musselwhite, Tommy Castro and Chris Wilson (the reformed Flamin’ Groovies' singer).
Joe X has played on superb stages all over the world: the Chicago Blues Festival (1995 and 2007), the Kingston Mines (Chicago Blues Centre, 1994, 1995, 2007), the Buddy Guy's Legends (Chicago, 1995, 2007), the House of Blues (Chicago, 2007), B. B. King Club (Memphis, 1994), Rothernite Festival (London, 2009), The Marquee Club (London, 2008), the Big Mama (Rome, 2004 and 2005), United Nations’ Tour-Italian Representative (Albany, 2003), the Grotto Pasinetti (Bellinzona, Switzerland, 2002), G7 Concert-Italian Representative (Naples, 1994), ... just to name a few! In addition, he has appeared in many Italian and Swiss TV showcases.
Now Blues Joe X is based in London (UK) where he is ready for new musical experiences and research.
Love and Happiness.
Stay Free and Tuned!!! ..

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Live at the Rotherhithe Festival 2009, London


Live at the Marquee Club, London, 2008


Live in Rome, 2001