|
Self taught, Joe was interested in drums since he was a child but did not get serious until age 14 when he began playing in the Rush cover band Red Sector back in the mid 80's, and studied with Tom Cavalucci (one of Jim Chapin's students). Red Sector were the youngest and arguably most precise of the local progressive rock bands at that time. After a few years of playing small venues and clubs, each member of the band went their separate ways. Joe then began playing in progressive rock/metal bands, where the music became even more intricate than Rush, using more odd time signatures/changes, which got him to a level of proficiency. He reached the point where he was teaching drums at the age of 21. His primary student, Stephen Chopek, went on to surpass him and reached a great level of success as a touring professional with award winning Jazz and rock/pop bands.
The combination of teaching drums, hearing Tony Thompson and Jack DeJohnette, and opening his tastes to Jazz/Fusion/Funk led him to completely change everything. He soon discovered the limited, overly structured, and unnatural feel that comes from established progressive rock and its "scene". Even more telling, he never had an interest in popular music of any time period and never liked "fads". As result, he got rid of the "image", and the 22 piece Neil Peart inspired drum set and stripped down to a six-piece drum set that he re-developed (shell isolation, mounts and etc.) and taught himself how to play all over again, this time concentrating on being a groove oriented foundation player instead of a soloist. His real education came from playing in the Soul/R&B act Solarhythm, lead by Jack Robinson, a perfectionist for solid rhythm sections and "moving" arrangements. Joe spent hours on end with the bass player to make this happen. As a result, Joe was playing side projects for rock bands that wanted a funk foundation. After Solarhythm disbanded, Joe joined Temple 23 (NYC), which was a pop group that he helped transform into a funk rock group. They released 2 ep's and played extensively in the clubs around metro area. He would repeatedly tell his friends and fellow musicians: "This music is what I'm most comfortable with playing, period, this is my musical home." And it became apparent that funk and fusion would be the core of what he would do.
Unfortunately in the early 90's, Joe had to leave Temple 23 because of serious and recurring ear and wrist injuries that would take a total of 5 years to heal. Shortly after, he had to then deal with knee injuries. Not staying "down", he began putting material together using Mac based sequencers, software synthesizers/samplers and live drums: electronic and acoustic and moved into the realm of electronic and world music. Incorporating the rhythms of the far east and samples of Hindu, Thai, Arabic and African voices here and there, as well as sitar/exotic instrument parts from fellow musicians, he recorded several songs and made them downloadable on several music sites (since early 2003). Either from full songs, or loops he created for other musicians/DJ's, he reached 15k downloads in the first year and continues to see traffic from www.josephdaqui.com and older sites.
In 2011, he received a phone call from his first band, Red Sector, to do a reunion concert and he agreed. This meant he had to perform live which he has not done since 1995. The physical preparation and difficult songs he had to re-learn brought the performing impulse back to him. The show was a success and with the support of his wife and child, he was now ready to play live drums again; the questions were what to play and with whom. After a few auditions and meetings with prospective bands, he came across an Ad for a "band in Rutherford", which turned out to be Kimon & the Prophets. When Kimon first sent him the link to their website to review their music, Joe was impressed by the funk and great songwriting/musicianship, but was reluctant because of the blues "core" of the group (he has limited experience with the blues). After one meeting and jam session, it was evident that he found a new home.
|
