In 1979, Joe Coughlin won CBC's "Search for the Stars" and scored a record deal, releasing a debut album "Joe Coughlin" in 1981 featuring the great Canadian rhythm-section of Ed Bickert (guitar), Don Thompson (bass), and Terry Clarke (drums), with Bernie Senensky on piano and Marty Morrell on percussion.

A follow-up "Second Debut", placed him back in Bickert's company, this time with the trio of Mark Eisenman and Kirk McDonald on tenor sax.

In 1995, Joe moved to BC and quietly began the second stage of his jazz evolution. In 2000 he released "Simple Pleasures" - shared between Eisenman's Toronto trio and the west-coast union of Pat Coleman on guitar and Ken Lister on bass with contributions from Ross Taggart on tenor & piano.

He was also the winner of the 2000, 2008 and the 2009 Canadian National Jazz Award for Male Vocalist of the Year. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.