:: Lobby & Pianobar entertainers ::

JOE BORLAND

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JOE BORLAND - pianobar entertainer

Joe was born and in Albany, NY. Precocious and inquisitive, Joe started mimicking his sisters and brothers at the piano when he was only five.. He began studying classical music with Elizabeth Alrutz at age 15, and studied with her classical teacher, Edward Morris at 18 until 24. Taking his craft seriously, he studied jazz piano with the creative composers, Tony Zano and Don York, and Jerome Gray in Seattle, WA. He studied voice with the noted Marty Lawrence in New York, and George Peckham in Seattle, WA.

He put his first group together with his high school classmates, Virginia Lane and George Garrett. It was called "Vi and the Guys", and was featured on a local TV show, "Stairway to the Stars". Joe worked around the Albany area with various groups, including the "Jazz Pyramids", a short stint with Erskine Hawkins while he was in town, and his own trios and quartets. As with so many others, the call of the road finally moved him, and Joseph took his trio on the road working in Hotels and restaurants from Albany, NY, his home town, to Seattle, WA, Alaska, Montana, Nevada, Iowa, Idaho, California, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah. While on the road, the trio was sometimes expanded to a quartet, using a female singer, such as Dee Daniels, or using a guitar for the fourth part.

In 1989, Joe took to the road, performing solo in some of Europe and Scandinavia's finest hotels and working on Finnish and Swedish Ferries, cruising on the Baltic Sea from Finland to Northern Germany to Sweden, and once to St. Petersburg. After a successful "Jazz on the Rivers" summer in Eugene, Oregon in 1990 at the Valley River Inn, where he used a variety of talented musicians in a quartet setting, and a 3 month stint at the Polo Club in Portland, he made a journey to Japan. Joe opened at the Roppongi Crest Club February 1, 1991, and continued there through the spring of 1992.

He went to Germany for a six week gig at the Treudleburg just outside of Hamburg in August through September. Then, after a short rest at home, he returned to the Crest Club in Roppongi where he continued through September 2002.
Since coming to Japan, Joe has done some spots on TV for a music video a TV drama , and AXWAVE Christmas Party; performed at many different places with a variety of musicians at weddings, Tokyo Bay cruises, and holiday shows. He is currently working at the Ginza Crest Club on Namiki Dori in Tokyo.

Joe's journey has been as varied as his music, and, in the music, the images, feelings, and pleasures are the things that count in the final analysis. "Tasty", that was the expression of one northwest writer after hearing one of Joe's trios at the Doubletree Inn in Seattle.