Saxophonist and singer Joe Moore, a towering figure in the Vermont live music scene, died on Wednesday at 75 as a result of complications due to surgery, his family announced on social media.
“It is with deep sorrow that we share Joe Moore has been called Home,” a Wednesday post on Moore’s Facebook page attributed to his family said. “We ask for your patience and consideration as we cope with losing him.”
Moore had been a fixture in the Vermont music scene since the mid-1970s, playing across the Green Mountain State in a variety of local acts, including the Joe Moore Band, Bob Stannard & Those Dangerous Bluesmen, and Pork Tornado — a side project of Phish drummer Jon Fishman.
“The reason he was in all of these bands over the span of his time in Vermont is that he was the go-to guy — the go-to saxophone player,” said Bob Stannard, Moore’s longtime friend and bandleader with Bob Stannard & Those Dangerous Bluesmen.
“He was just a consummate showman and entertainer—a talented, kind, and elegant guy,” Stannard said.
Moore was born in Winter Park, Florida. He began learning to play saxophone in seventh grade, and at 17, he started gigging with bands around Miami and Jacksonville, he told an interviewer from the YouTube channel Vermont Blues Retreat in 2021.
Having quickly made a name for himself as one of the region’s formidable horn players, Moore began touring the country with the likes of legendary bluesmen Slim Harpo and Junior Walker while receiving offers to play with the Isley Brothers and Billy Stewart.
He eventually found himself in Vermont by way of an incident that has since become the stuff of local legend.
In the early ‘70s, Moore was invited by Canadian guitarist Frank Marino to play with his band Mahogany Rush. While trying to make his way up to Montreal, Moore was unceremoniously turned away at the Vermont-Canadian border, supposedly because he didn’t have enough money and couldn’t prove his connection to the Canadian rocker.
In his Vermont Blues Retreat interview, Moore insinuated that his race might have been a factor. “They treated me pretty frickin’ nasty actually,” he said. “They were just simply nasty.”
Marino’s loss was ultimately Vermont’s gain. After landing in St. Albans, Moore immediately began gigging in the area and, before long, established himself as one of the Green Mountain State’s preeminent blues, jazz and R&B musicians.
Moore was a staple at the Burlington Discover Jazz Festival, and he often played shows at Red Square and Foam Brewers in Burlington, in addition to countless other venues across the state.
Guitarist Bill Darrow began sharing the stage with the horn player in various groups throughout the ‘90s before joining Moore’s own outfit, the Joe Moore Band, in the mid-2000s.
“It was always wonderful to show up for a gig, and Joe would be there, and he’d look up with a smile,” Darrow said. “He was always very kind. He’d say, ‘Thanks for coming,’ … he was just so sweet.”
In recent years, Moore was beset with health issues, including prostate cancer and nerve damage in his fingers. But even as Moore struggled with his health, he continued to perform across Vermont.
Darrow said that he and Moore played three shows together on St. Patrick’s Day weekend this year — the last shows that Moore would play — even as Moore was preparing to go into surgery for his back the following week.
“If I had as many physical challenges as he had, I’d stop playing. But for him, it was what he did. He had been doing that for 60 years,” Darrow said. “He never batted an eye and that’s because I don’t think it ever occurred to him to not play.”
