Born in London, Ontario, Canada, Joe Edmonds has been a professional musician since 1969, having performed and resided in Toronto, Montreal, Miami, Las Vegas, New York City, and innumerable other locations across North America. His experience has included jazz combos, big bands (including a stint in the world famous Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra), rock bands, "Vegas-style" show bands, and symphony orchestras. During his career he has been privileged to share stages and recording studios with top professionals from around the world as sideman, leader, and producer.

Joe's CD of original music, Reflection, has been receiving regular airplay on CBC's Stingray (formerly Galaxie) jazz station since 2009. In 2010 he recorded a CD with multiple-award-winning Skip Prokop, drummer, co-leader, and founder of the legendary jazz/rock band Lighthouse. Out of that recording came the formation of Skip's new band, Smoothside, in which Joe played saxophones, trombone, and flute. In 2012 Smoothside won Jazz Album of the Year at the Hamilton Music Awards. Joe's latest recording project, Swingman, was produced to coincide with the release of this book. (See Appendix)

When his son Jason was killed in a highly publicized road rage incident in January 2000, Joe decided he had to try to pull something positive from the tragedy. Utilizing his abilities as a public speaker, acquired through years of musical performance, he created a presentation about the dangers of aggressive driving and road rage, which he has presented to over 100,000 listeners at schools and conferences in both Canada and the USA, including the World Health Organization's national and international conferences in 2002.

Joe's flair for writing was evident at age twelve, when he began to bang out poems on his family's ancient Underwood typewriter. By age thirteen, he had completed a collection of short stories, which prompted his teachers to predict a career as an author. As fate would have it, his life plans turned to music, and the book writing dream was replaced by performing and songwriting . . . although throughout his adulthood, he continued to write poetry, and countless articles for magazines and professional association publications.

The latest chapter of Joe's life now has him going back to his earliest artistic ambition, while actually combining the writing of music and literature: Swingman, the CD . . . and Swingman, his first novel.
A second novel, The Cold Room, is nearing completion.
For more information,
see Joe's web page: www.joeedmonds.ca