Joe Loco

Who was Joe Loco?

Joe Loco was a Latin jazz and Latin pop pianist and arranger of Puerto Rican ancestry.

Loco first played with an ensemble called Montecino's Happy Boys in 1938. In the early 1940s he served as Machito's pianist before joining the Air Force from 1945 to 1947. He then freelanced with many of the top Latin ensembles of the time well into the 1950s, working with Polito Galíndez, Marcelino Guerra, Pupi Campo, and Julio Andino. He scored a hit of his own in 1952 with the tune "Tenderly". Loco also did Latin arrangements of pop standards, and performed them with a quintet in many jazz venues that did not typically showcase Latin music.