Handyman Joe

By shufflocity on June 28, 2026

“Handyman Joe” is an instrumental ballad that is a tribute to one of our finest local jazz musicians, Joe Negri, who passed away this week just a few weeks short of his 100th birthday. As a guitarist and musician, he was a world class talent and player who could have been famous had he chosen to pursue that career path. He could truly hand with anyone. But, like my father (a world-class talent as a pianist), he chose staying in his home town, having a family, and living a more normal life. He played the genial “Handyman Joe” on “Mr. Rogers Neighorhood” for nearly 40 years – achieving national fame in a totally diferent way.

Born in 1926, he was an exact peer of Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ray Brown and that generation of artists. As such, his inspiration as a jazz guitarist would likely have been Charlie Christian.

Joe was also one of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and not just among musicians – everybody. I did a couple of gigs with him over the years, typically with him playing solo jazz and me playing solo classical, followed by a couple duets. He was totally easy and pleasant to work with. Beimg fairly young at the time I wasn’t really aware of how great a disparity there was between his talent level and mine, because he never had any airs or arrogance. He treated me as an equal and it was totally sincere.