Joe Lastie, Jr.
Joe Lastie, Jr. was born into one of the great musical families of New Orleans. His grandfather, "Deacon" Frank "Floorshow" Lastie, was a minister credited with popularizing the drum set in church music. His mother, his aunt Betty, and his uncles Melvin, David, and Walter "Popee" all carried the sound forward in their own right.
Joe watched his grandfather Frank play with his fingers, not his arms — a technique that stuck. "It didn't matter if it was just a snare drum and cymbal," Joe says. "I'd always find a way to make it work out."
He studied jazz with Willie Metcalf at the Dryades Street YMCA, where his classmates included a young Wynton and Branford Marsalis. His drumming earned him a seat in the pit band for the New Orleans Broadway production of One Mo' Time.
In 1989, on a tip from trumpeter Gregg Stafford, Joe was invited to sub at Preservation Hall — and he's been a regular drummer with the band ever since. He toured the world for twenty-seven years as a member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, sharing stages with Professor Longhair, Irma Thomas, Fats Domino, and Narvin Kimball along the way.
Today he leads Joe Lastie's New Orleans Sound, keeping the tradition alive for the next generation.
"People come to New Orleans to hear New Orleans music — New Orleans jazz. That's what I want to bring to people who come to New Orleans."
"I do fear that the next generation may not pick up the traditional New Orleans jazz sound and it will be lost. What's ironic is that the jazz taught in school isn't going to get a kid a job playing anywhere."