Joe Mondragon (February 2, 1920 – July, 1987) was an American jazz bassist.
Mondragon was an autodidact on bass, and began working professionally in Los Angeles. He served in the Army during World War II, and then joined Woody Herman's First Herd in 1946. Over the next two decades, he became one of the more popular studio bassists for jazz recording on the West Coast, appearing on albums by June Christy, Shorty Rogers, Shelly Manne, Buddy Rich, Buddy DeFranco, Marty Paich, Claude Williamson, Georgie Auld, Chet Baker, Bob Cooper, Harry Sweets Edison, Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, Bud Shank and Ella Fitzgerald. Mondragon can also be heard on soundtracks for films such as The Wild One and Pete Kelly's Blues.
Mondragon never recorded as a leader.
Read more about Joe Mondragon: Discography
Famous quotes containing the word joe:
“This might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than apes. True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and, unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)