music.wikisort.org - Musician

Mendelson Joe (born Birrel Josef Mendelson on July 30, 1944) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, guitarist, painter and [1] outspoken political activist[2][3] who uses his art to express political themes.

Mendelson Joe
Born	Birrel Josef Mendelson (1944-07-30)July 30, 1944
Education	BA University of Toronto
Known for	singer-songwriter, guitarist, painter

Career

Born and raised in Maple, Ontario and educated at the University of Toronto with a B.A. in 1966, he began performing as a blues musician under the name Joe Mendelson in 1964. Four years later, he joined with guitarist Mike McKenna to form the band McKenna Mendelson Mainline, which was active until 1972 and reformed briefly in 1975.

In 1975, Joe adopted his current name, and began performing as a solo artist, frequently collaborating with musicians such as Ben Mink, Gwen Swick and Colin Linden. He also began to make a name for himself as a contemporary artist, pursuing painting, often of portraits of popular musical figures, as well as music. In 1980, he had a show of his work at the Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris in which his art style was described as "Dauntless Evidentiam".[4] In 1985, he had a show of 25 portraits at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa titled "Working Women", curated by Joan Murray.[5] His most famous painting depicted Prime Minister Brian Mulroney with his face superimposed on a pair of human buttocks.[6] He published a book of his portraits, Joe's Toronto, in 2005.[6] In 1988, he appeared in an episode of Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show titled "Sunday in the Park". Around this period, a music video for a novelty song he recorded, "Dance with Joe", received extensive airplay on MuchMusic.

Joe invented the corporate sponsor of Bob Wiseman's 1991 record on Warner Brothers Lake Michigan Soda and played on the record as its president. Viewers of Rick Mercer report will find episodes with Joe on YouTube.

He appears in Derek May's 1981 documentary film on the Toronto art scene, Off the Wall.[7]

Joe is the nephew of Ruth Eisenberg, "Ivory" of Ebony and Ivory.

References

External links

• Mendelson Joe
• Mendelson Joe discography at Discogs
• Mendelson Joe at IMDb

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