Joe Guy (musician) Joe Guy (musician) Joseph Luke Guy (September 20, 1920 – 1962) was an American jazz trumpeter. Guy had a promising career as a young progressive bop musician as he worked alongside more prominent musical acts until a drug addiction sidelined him from further success. Much of Guy's early personal life is obscured, but it is known he began his professional music career performing in New York City, and joined Fats Waller's backup band in the late 1930s. Following that, in 1938, Guy succeeded Dizzy Gillespie in Teddy Hill's orchestra, and patterned a playing style that emulated his musical role model,
Dizzy Gillespie East which was extremely well received internationally and earned him the nickname "the Ambassador of Jazz". During this time, he also continued to lead a big band that performed throughout the United States and featured musicians including Pee Wee Moore and others. This band recorded a live album at the 1957 Newport jazz festival that featured Mary Lou Williams as a guest artist on piano. In the late 1940s, Gillespie was also involved in the movement called Afro-Cuban music, bringing Afro-Latin American music and elements to greater prominence in jazz and even pop music, particularly salsa. Afro-Cuban jazz is based