“Oh, hey man, thanks for what you do for the music.”
Those were the first words that Big Joe Fitz said to me when we met, nearly two decades ago.
The music.
Fitz was most identified with the blues, which he played and championed as a performing artist and DJ. But, like you arts editor, he recognized that all musical genres were equally valid, all of them different ways of expressing the same universal human aspirations and emotions. And, just as I do, he wanted to support and encourage our local musicians and artists. For him, “the music”—all music—was what everything was about.
Fitz was born Joseph Michael Fitzpatrick Jr. and grew up in New York’s Stuyvesant Town neighborhood. His importance to the Hudson Valley music scene was towering, his reputation firmly in place well before I moved to the region in late 2003. For 35 years his Radio Woodstock show “The Blues Break” was an audio beacon for area blues lovers that played the latest in soulful modern blues and classic cuts from the blues and R&B canons.
Working for the Life section of the Daily Freeman and then as the Music and eventual Arts editor of Chronogram, I’d previewed his steady gigs and made sure his releases were covered within our pages. We’d both been aware of each other for some time, but when we finally met in person the bond was instant and real. Joe’s warmth was radiant and he made me feel like we were already friends, with an unspoken, blood-brothers-level understanding thanks to our mutual connection to the music: our love, reverence, and pure awe for the deep, inherent, mystical power of the real-deal blues. But of course, to our point above, Joe was a deep cat, who was well versed in music outside the blues.
The singer’s kindness also extended well outside the music community. “His penchant for community service began as a young camp counselor at St. Vincent DePaul in Rock Hill, New York, where he formed some of his closest friendships,” reads his obituary on the Greg Moylan Funeral Home website. “He was an anti‑poverty VISTA volunteer in Indiana; a deliveryman for Angel Food East; a singer for the Threshold Choir; a tutor for Ulster Literacy; and throughout his 30‑year career at the Astor Home in Rhinebeck, he helped many foster children find comfort.”
After a lengthy battle with cancer, Big Joe Fitz passed away on January 15 at his home in his beloved adopted town of Rosendale. He’s survived by his with Kathleen Kuber, his son Sam (named for bluesman Samuel “Lightnin’” Hopkins), other family members, and many, many friends from the music and arts communities. Along with everyone else here at Chronogram, I’d like to say this: Thanks Joe, for what you did for the music.
Donations in Big Joe Fitz’s name can be made to Angel Food East and/or Hudson Valley Hospice.
