Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons

Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons

Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons are an Australian blues and rock music band which features singer, songwriter and saxophonist, Joe Camilleri (aka Jo Jo Zep). The band was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and had several Australian chart hits, including "Hit and Run", "Shape I'm In" and "All I Wanna Do". The Falcons dissolved in 1981 and the group's biggest Australian hit, 1982's "Taxi Mary", as well as the New Zealand top ten hit "Walk On By", were both credited simply to Jo Jo Zep. In 1983, Camilleri and other members of the Falcons formed The Black Sorrows.

The late 1970s line up of Camilleri, Jeff Burstin on guitar, Tony Faehse on guitar, John Power on bass guitar, Wilbur Wilde on saxophone and Gary Young on drums, reunited in 2001, and again in 2003 to release a new album. In 2007, the group was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Further reunion concerts occurred in 2008 and 2011, and an Australian tour has been announced for 2013. According to Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, the group was initially a "funky, energetic R&B band" which "infused the music with large dose of reggae rhythms" and later was a "brass-driven, latin-styled big band".