Joel Edward Helleny 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...

 trombonist.

Helleny learned piano from his mother as a child but settled on trombone by age seven. He attended the University of Illinois before moving to New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in 1979. There he played with Mel Lewis

Mel Lewis

Mel Lewis was an American drummer, jazz musician and band leader. He was born Melvin Sokoloff in Buffalo, New York to Russian immigrant parents....

, Roy Eldridge

Roy Eldridge

Roy David Eldridge , nicknamed "Little Jazz" was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos and his strong influence on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most exciting musicians of the swing era and a...

 (1979), and Benny Goodman

Benny Goodman

Benjamin David “Benny” Goodman was an American jazz and swing musician, clarinetist and bandleader; widely known as the "King of Swing".In the mid-1930s, Benny Goodman led one of the most popular musical groups in America...

 (1980-82) before returning to Lewis's band in 1983. He was a featured soloist on the soundtrack to the 1984 movie The Cotton Club

The Cotton Club (film)

The Cotton Club is a 1984 crime-drama, centered on a famed Harlem jazz club of the 1930s, the Cotton Club.The movie was co-written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, choreographed by Henry LeTang, and starred Richard Gere, Diane Lane, and Gregory Hines...

. He played with Vince Giordano

Vince Giordano

Vince Giordano is a musician, arranger, and leader of the New York-based Nighthawks Orchestra. Giordano specializes in the jazz styles of the 1920s and early 1930s. Giordano and the Nighthawks have contributed to a number of films and he is especially noted for orchestrations featured in the...

's Memphis Nighthawks

Memphis Nighthawks

Memphis Nighthawks were a traditional jazz band based in Champaign, Illinois during the 1970s.-History:Founded and led by Ron Dewar, from the School of Music at the University of Illinois, the Nighthawks performed compositions from the early days of jazz....

, and then with the same ensemble after Giordano left it in 1986. He worked with Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton

Buck Clayton was an American jazz trumpet player who was a leading member of Count Basie’s "Old Testament" orchestra and a leader of mainstream-oriented jam session recordings in the 1950s. His principal influence was Louis Armstrong...

 (1989-90), Jimmy McGriff

Jimmy McGriff

James Harrell McGriff was an American hard bop and soul-jazz organist and organ trio bandleader who developed a distinctive style of playing the Hammond B-3 organ.-Early years and influences:...

 (1990), George Wein

George Wein

George Wein is an American jazz promoter and producer who has been called "the most famous jazz impresario" and "the most important non-player... in jazz history"...

 (1990 and subsequently), Frank Wess

Frank Wess

Frank Wess is an American jazz musician, who has played saxophone and flute.-Biography:...

 (1991), Randy Sandke

Randy Sandke

Randy Sandke is a jazz trumpeter and guitarist.In an interview with Larry Kart he said: "I got into jazz kind of chronologically, beginning with Bix and Louis, then Dizzy, Clifford Brown, Miles, and Freddie Hubbard. I also studied at Roosevelt University with Renold Schilke, a legendary teacher...

, Warren Vache

Warren Vache

Warren Vaché is a jazz trumpeter, cornetist and flugelhornist born in Rahway, New Jersey. He came from a musical family as his father was a bassist. In 1976 he released his first album...

 (1993-95), Kenny Davern

Kenny Davern

Kenny Davern , born John Kenneth Davern, was one of the premier jazz clarinetists of his generation.-Biography:He was born in Huntington, Long Island to a family of mixed Jewish and Irish-Catholic ancestry...

 (1994), Scott Hamilton

Scott Hamilton (musician)

Scott Hamilton is a jazz tenor saxophonist, born in 1954 and associated with swing and mainstream jazz.-Biography:He emerged in the 1970s and at the time he was considered to be one of the few musicians of real talent who carried the tradition of the classic jazz tenor saxophone in the style of...

 (1995), Greg Cohen

Greg Cohen

A native of Los Angeles, bassist Greg Cohen has been playing in various acclaimed music groups since the '60s. He is perhaps best known for his work with John Zorn's Masada quartet; more recently he has been touring with Ornette Coleman, and performed on Coleman's much-praised Sound Grammar...

 (1996), and the Keith Ingham

Keith Ingham

Keith Ingham is an English jazz pianist, mainly active in swing and Dixieland revival.Ingham's first professional gigs occurred in 1964. He played with Sandy Brown, Bruce Turner, and Wally Fawkes that decade. He played with Bob Wilber and Bud Freeman in 1974, and moved to New York City in 1978...

/Marty Grosz

Marty Grosz

Martin Oliver "Marty" Grosz is an American jazz guitarist, banjoist, vocalist and composer born in Berlin, Germany, perhaps most notable for his work with Bob Wilber, performing with and doing arrangements for him. Grosz has also been involved in projects involving Kenny Davern, Dick Sudhalter and...

 group Hot Cosmopolites in 1996. He was a member of the New York Allstars in the 1990s. His first release as a leader was 1995's Lip Service, on Arbors Records

Arbors Records

Arbors Records is an independent American jazz record label based in Clearwater, Florida. It was founded by the family team of Mat and Rachel Domber in 1989, initially devoted to the recordings of their friend Rick Fay.-History:...

.