Joe Maini was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 alto saxophonist

Alto saxophone

The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...

.

Maini played early on in the big band

Big band

A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...

s of Alvino Rey

Alvino Rey

Alvin McBurney , known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American swing era musician and pioneer, often credited as the father of the pedal steel guitar...

, Johnny Bothwell

Johnny Bothwell

Johnny Bothwell was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader....

, and Claude Thornhill

Claude Thornhill

Claude Thornhill was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader...

 (1951). Soon after, he moved to Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, where he worked frequently as a session musician

Session musician

Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

. He continued working in big bands, playing in those of Terry Gibbs

Terry Gibbs

Terry Gibbs is an American jazz vibraphonist and band leader.He has performed and/or recorded with Tommy Dorsey, Chubby Jackson, Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Louie Bellson, Charlie Shavers, Mel Tormé, Buddy DeFranco, and others...

, Gerald Wilson

Gerald Wilson

Gerald Stanley Wilson is an American jazz trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer/arranger, 8 time Grammy nominee, and educator. He has been based in Los Angeles since the early 1940s....

, Bill Holman, Louis Bellson, and Shelly Manne

Shelly Manne

Shelly Manne , born Sheldon Manne in New York City, was an American jazz drummer. Most frequently associated with West Coast jazz, he was known for his versatility and also played in a number of other styles, including Dixieland, swing, bebop, avant-garde jazz and fusion, as well as contributing...

; he also did work with Lenny Bruce

Lenny Bruce

Leonard Alfred Schneider , better known by the stage name Lenny Bruce, was a Jewish-American comedian, social critic and satirist...

. He recorded with Clifford Brown

Clifford Brown

Clifford Brown , aka "Brownie," was an influential and highly rated American jazz trumpeter. He died aged 25, leaving behind only four years' worth of recordings...

 and Max Roach

Max Roach

Maxwell Lemuel "Max" Roach was an American jazz percussionist, drummer, and composer.A pioneer of bebop, Roach went on to work in many other styles of music, and is generally considered alongside the most important drummers in history...

 (1954), Zoot Sims

Zoot Sims

John Haley "Zoot" Sims was an American jazz saxophonist, playing mainly tenor and soprano.-Biography:He was born in Inglewood, California, the son of vaudeville performers Kate Haley and John Sims. Growing up in a performing family, Sims learned to play both drums and clarinet at an early age...

 (1956), Jack Sheldon

Jack Sheldon

Jack Sheldon is an American bebop and West Coast jazz trumpeter, singer, and actor. He is a trumpet player and was a comedian on The Merv Griffin Show, as well as the voice heard on several episodes of the educational music television series Schoolhouse Rock.-Biography:Sheldon was born in...

, Red Mitchell

Red Mitchell

Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell Keith Moore "Red" Mitchell (September 20, 1927, New York City - November 8, 1992, Salem, Oregon, was an American jazz double-bassist, composer, lyricist, and poet. He was the brother of Whitey Mitchell....

, Lin Halliday

Lin Halliday

Lin Halliday was an American saxophonist.Lin Halliday was born in De Queen, Arkansas and was raised in Little Rock, where he played the saxophone and clarinet in school. After he moved to Los Angeles in his teens to begin playing professionally, he began performing with saxophonist Joe Maini...

, Kenny Drew

Kenny Drew

Kenneth Sidney "Kenny" Drew was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:Born in New York City, New York, he first recorded with Howard McGhee in 1949, and over the next two years recorded with Buddy DeFranco, Coleman Hawkins, Milt Jackson, Charlie Parker, Buddy Rich, and Dinah Washington...

, and Jimmy Knepper

Jimmy Knepper

James M. Knepper was an American jazz trombonist.He was a good friend and arranging/transcribing partner of bassist and composer Charles Mingus. Knepper was twice on the receiving end of Mingus' legendary temper...

.

Maini died at age 34 in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. Historians and reference works usually state that Maini died playing Russian roulette

Russian roulette

Russian roulette is a potentially lethal game of chance in which participants place a single round in a revolver, spin the cylinder, place the muzzle against their head and pull the trigger...

, though his family contends that the death was a firearms accident.

Forty-four years after Maini's death, Lonehill issued a four-CD set with his small group recordings.