Joseph Mooney

Place: Paterson

Born: 1911

Death: 1975

Biography:

Joe Mooney was an American jazz and pop accordionist, organist, and vocalist. He was born in Paterson, New Jersey, United States, and went blind when he was around 10 years of age. Mooney's first job, at age 12, was playing the piano for requests called in to a local radio station. He and his brother, Dan, played together on radio broadcasts in the late 1920s. In 1937, Mooney began working as a pianist and arranger for Frank Dailey, and through the early 1940s he arranged for Paul Whiteman, Vincent Lopez, Larry Clinton, Les Brown, and The Modernaires. He put together his own quartet in 1943 and experienced considerable success in the United States in the last half of the 1940s. In the 1950s, Mooney sang with the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra and played with Johnny Smith. After moving to Florida in 1954, he concentrated more on organ. He recorded again in 1956, 1963, and the middle of the 1960s. Joe Mooney died at age 64, on May 12, 1975, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, after a stroke.