Bowie, Joseph

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Bowie, Joseph

Bowie, Joseph, jazz/funk trombonist, percussionist, brother of Lester Bowie; b. St. Louis, Mo., 1953. He studied piano and worked with Paramounts, Lamontes, and Oliver Sain. He was Music Director for Fontella Bass. A member of BAG, he also formed Defunkt, which managed to successfully merge funk beats, rock energy, jazz techniques and soloing, with an unpredictable, free-wheeling avant-garde aesthetic. They were popular during the early and mid-1980s, disbanded, then reunited in early 1990s.

Discography

Defunkt: Defunkt (1980); A Defunkt Anthology (1981); Thermonuclear Sweat (1982); In America (1988); Avoid the Funk (1988); Heroes (1990); Crisis (1992); Live at the Knitting Factory (1991).

—Lewis Porter