After over 50 years of recognition as one of the consummate sidemen on the adventurous music scene – with remarkable artists like Sam Rivers, Carla Bley, Gil Evans, Charlie Haden, Muhal Richard Abrams, Taj Mahal and so many more – Joseph Daley has emerged as one of Jazz and contemporary music’s most extraordinary composers and leaders. Stunning musicians, fans and critics alike with his brilliant 2011 CD, The Seven Deadly Sins, featuring his Earth Tones Ensemble (a full Jazz orchestra augmented by six additional low-tone horns, and including a seven-member rhythm section and four special guests), this powerfully innovative music mines the same rich vein of musical expression as that of immortals like Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington and George Russell, receiving rave reviews and making several Best of Year lists.
In 2013 he followed up with The Seven Heavenly Virtues (partially funded through New Music USA), then 2014’s Portraits: Wind, Thunder and Love which includes the five-movement suite Wispercussion: Five Portraits of Warren Smith – both featuring string orchestras. In 2019 he repackaged both Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Heavenly Virtues into a single CD entitled Sins and Virtues.
Mr. Daley has received fellowships in music composition from the National Endowment of the Arts, the MacDowell Colony, Art Omi, and the Geraldine R Dodge Foundation: and has been commissioned for acclaimed works by the Tri-Centric Foundation and Dance Clarinet Ensemble (through Brooklyn Council on the Arts.)
Joseph is currently composing new large-scale works that will be premiered in conjunction with his 75th birthday in 2024.