Meet the Jazz trio drummer

Next up for introduction is the talented percussionist taking part in Blat The Island Fortress opera-film!

DRUMMER FOR JAZZ TRIO

In the opera-film we had two different jazz trios involved; one consisting of students of the MAVC Malta School of Music and one of the teachers of the same school. Joseph Camilleri Jr.’s role as a drummer was to play with the teachers’ jazz trio and record the work composed by Dr Reuben Pace.

Joseph grew up in a musical family his grandfather Frank ‘Bibi’ Camilleri was a well known Maltese jazz pianist, whilst his father Joe was the principal percussionist for the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra. He began learning classical piano at a young age, eventually shifting to percussion under his father’s tuition. He attended private lessons and masterclasses by several distinguished drummers including Asaf Sirkis, Efrain Toro and Ze Eduardo Nazario, and holds a BMus (Hons) degree in music from The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in London.

Joseph is currently a percussion teacher at the MAVC Malta School of Music and at the MAVC Gozo Visual & Performing Arts School, and has hosted workshops for aspiring drummers at the X4M Perform School in Torino, Italy. He performs frequently both locally and abroad, with notable performances including the Beyond Boundaries folk festival (Bulgaria), the International Jazz Day in Bergamo, Sunset-Sunside jazz club (Paris, France) and several editions of the Malta Jazz Festival. In May 2016 Joseph recorded at Studios de la Seine in Paris, on Maltese saxophonist Carlo Muscat’s album entitled, ‘Explorations’ and in March 2019 recorded at Studio De Medoun in Paris with Blue Tangerine for their debut album. In 2020 he joined the band Djun.