Joe Messina Born: Detroit, MI in 1928
Nick names: none
Instruments: Gibson L-5,early 60's Fender Telecaster with a Jazzmaster neck strung with heavy flatwound strings.
Joe started out his career playing jazz guitar at the local Detroit nightclubs in addition to local TV and radio work.
Later on,he became a member of the house band on the nationally televised Soupy Sales Show.This gave Joe the chance to play alongside some of his jazz heroes like John Coltrane, Charlie "Bird" Parker and the great Miles Davis who were all guests on the show.
Joe arrived at Motown in 1959.One of the roles that Joe played in the studio was on keeping the backbeat,a key ingredient of the Motown sound.This involved hitting a chord at exactly the same time as the snare drum to create a kind of "chunk,chunk" reggae like sound.For over more than a decade Joe never missed a beat.
Sometimes,he also had the challenging role of doubling James Jamerson's bass lines on his guitar like on Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's "Your Precious Love."