Joel Gibson

Joel Gibson was born in Spokane, Washington. The son of an excellent jazz bassist, his passion for music was kindled at a very early age. He took up the trumpet at ten years of age after hearing the great Maynard Ferguson. The decision was made immediately to make playing jazz trumpet his life's pursuit.
After high school he began attending Spokane Falls Community College, which had an excellent jazz studies program. After only one year of full time attendance, however, he found that he was up to the task of playing professionally, and the completion of a music degree was put on the back burner. Recently, after 15 years on the road, including cruise ship gigs, five years in New York, two years in Japan, and visits to all fifty states in America, the opportunity arrived to finish that degree.

It is now his good fortune to study jazz with some of the most professional and savvy, as well as passionate, musicians around, namely, David Loeb, Bruce Paulson, Tom Warrington, Joe Lano and the rest of the fine faculty at UNLV.

This fall Otto will play for the Producers at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas featuring Tony Danza. Otto enjoys performing both classical and jazz music and loves composing modern jazz style tunes. He is very proud to be a UNLV REBEL and is thrilled to be apart of the jazz community here in Vegas.