Joe Castro

Joe Castro (August 15, 1927 - December 13, 2009) was an American bebop jazz pianist, based primarily on the West Coast of the United States. Joseph Armand Castro was born in Miami, Arizona on August 15, 1927 to parents John L. Castro and Lucy Sanchez. Castro went to school in Pittsburg, California in the San Francisco Bay area, north of Oakland, where he began playing professionally at the age of 15. His enrollment at San Jose State University was interrupted twice—first by a stint in the army from 1946 to 1947 and then when he formed his first jazz trio working on both the West Coast and in Hawaii. In 1956, Castro moved to New York City where his trio successfully appeared in the city's top jazz clubs—Basin Street, The Embers, The...