Joe Tarto was an American 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...

 tubist and bassist.

Tarto played trombone from age 12 before settling on tuba as a teenager. He played in an Army band in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, where he was wounded, and received his release in 1919. In the 1920s he worked with Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...

, Paul Specht

Paul Specht

Paul Specht was an American dance bandleader popular in the 1920s.Born in Sinking Spring, Pennsylvania, Specht was a violinist, having been taught by his father Charles G. Specht, a violinist, organist, and bandleader in his own right...

, Sam Lanin

Sam Lanin

Sam Lanin was an American jazz bandleader.Lanin's brothers, Howard and Lester, were also bandleaders, and all of them had sustained, successful careers in music. Lanin was one of ten children born to Russian-Jewish immigrants who emigrated to Philadelphia in the decade of the 1900s...

, and Vincent Lopez

Vincent Lopez

Vincent Lopez was an American bandleader and pianist.Vincent Lopez was born of Portuguese immigrant parents in Brooklyn, New York and was leading his own dance band in New York City by 1917...

, in addition to doing arrangement work for Fletcher Henderson

Fletcher Henderson

James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...

 and Chick Webb

Chick Webb

William Henry Webb, usually known as Chick Webb was an American jazz and swing music drummer as well as a band leader.-Biography:...

 and playing in pit orchestra

Pit orchestra

A pit orchestra is a type of orchestra that accompanies performers in musicals, operas, and other shows involving music. In performances of operas and ballets, the pit orchestra is typically similar in size to a symphony orchestra, though it may contain smaller string and brass sections, depending...

s on Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

. He also recorded copiously throughout the decade of the 1920s, accompanying musicians such as Bing Crosby

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby was an American singer and actor. Crosby's trademark bass-baritone voice made him one of the best-selling recording artists of the 20th century, with over half a billion records in circulation....

, The Boswell Sisters, Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters was an American blues, jazz and gospel vocalist and actress. She frequently performed jazz, big band, and pop music, on the Broadway stage and in concerts, although she began her career in the 1920s singing blues.Her best-known recordings includes, "Dinah", "Birmingham Bertha",...

, Eddie Lang

Eddie Lang

Eddie Lang was an American jazz guitarist, regarded as the Father of Jazz Guitar. He played a Gibson L-4 and L-5 guitar, providing great influence for many guitarists, including Django Reinhardt.-Biography:...

, Joe Venuti, Miff Mole

Miff Mole

Irving Milfred Mole, better known as Miff Mole was a jazz trombonist and band leader. He is generally considered as one of the greatest jazz trombonists and credited with creating "the first distinctive and influential solo jazz trombone style." His major recordings included "Slippin' Around",...

, Red Nichols

Red Nichols

Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols was an American jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader.Over his long career, Nichols recorded in a wide variety of musical styles, and critic Steve Leggett describes him as "an expert cornet player, a solid improviser, and apparently a workaholic, since he is...

, The Dorsey Brothers

The Dorsey Brothers

The Dorsey Brothers were a studio group fronted by musicians Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. They started recording under their name in 1928 with a series of studio recordings for the OKeh label...

, Bix Beiderbecke

Bix Beiderbecke

Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...

, and Phil Napoleon

Phil Napoleon

Phil Napoleon , born Filippo Napoli, was an early jazz trumpeter and bandleader born in Boston, Massachusetts...

.

In the 1930s he spent to years playing with Roger Wolfe Kahn

Roger Wolfe Kahn

Roger Wolfe Kahn was an American jazz and popular musician, composer, and bandleader ....

, then worked extensively 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...

 both on tuba and double bass. He also played with radio ensembles and in theater and symphony orchestras. He remained active as a performer into the 1980s, playing in Dixieland jazz

Dixieland Jazz

Dixieland Jazz was a Canadian music television series which aired on CBC Television in 1954.-Premise:The series host was Trump Davidson, a cornet player. He also hosted a radio music series on CBC's Trans-Canada Network.-Scheduling:...

revival groups in his last years.