NOTE: For me meeting Joe and taking some classes with him was a real great experience. I came across his name while I was still living in Italy because he was on Stéphane Grappelli's album. When I heard his playing I liked him immediately. In Sicily I did not have any exposure to jazz, so this album for me was a real eye opener and a treasure. So when I hooked up with Joe in Detroit it was like a dream. I remember I told him that I wanted to play Be Bop, (that is what is hot in Detroit, so it was what I was exposed to) and Joe told me that there are too many doing it already and "just keep what you're doing with guitar because there are not many who are playing nylon fingerstyle jazz like the way you do with your harmony structures." We became great friends and would talk on the phone from his different concerts....I was not yet speaking much English, so we would speak in Italian. Giuseppe Passalaqua was a true paissano! Whenever he was in Detroit I would pick him up and cook Italian dinner for him and we would hang out at the cigar shop — since we both smoked cigars...
