Joe Evans

Who was Joe Evans?

Joe Evans was a jazz alto saxophonist.

Born in Pensacola, Florida, he was active between 1939 and 1965, playing in the big bands of Jay McShann, Jimmy Forrest and Gene Ramey; Don Redman and Louis Armstrong. In 1944 he recorded with Mary Lou Williams, as a member of a band including Coleman Hawkins, Bill Coleman and Denzil Best. At the beginning of 1945, he recorded for J. Mayo Williams's independent label, Chicago, leading a combo comprising Jesse Drakes, Duke Jordan, Gene Ramey, J. C. Heard and Etta Jones. Later that same year and in 1946, he recorded with Andy Kirk's orchestra as part of a lineup that included Fats Navarro, Reuben Phillips, Jimmy Forrest, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Hank Jones, Floyd Smith, Al Hall and Ben Thigpen. Other musicians he performed and recorded with include Cab Calloway, Billie Holiday, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Lionel Hampton, and Ivory Joe Hunter. In 2008, University of Illinois Press published his autobiography, Follow Your Heart, co-authored by Christopher Brooks, a professor of anthropology at Virginia Commonwealth University. He died in Richmond, Virginia of renal disease on January 17, 2014.