Joe Mosbrook

Awarded: 2021
Born: Wilmington, DE

“As a child, I never went to museums and the like. For me, it was always jazz.”

- Joe Mosbrook

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A celebrated and awarded northeast Ohio broadcast journalist, Joe Mosbrook turned his passion for jazz into a creative odyssey, documenting the rich and previously untold history of Cleveland jazz. His earliest writings, featured in the Northeast Ohio Jazz Society’s newsletters, were reformatted for radio at the request of NPR station, WCPN. His features, numbering nearly 1,700, have been broadcast weekly for the past 33 years.

Mosbrook’s earliest broadcasting experience began in college where he hosted jazz programs. He began his professional career at NBC radio while still in college. Since arriving in Cleveland in 1967, Mosbrook covered most of northeast Ohio’s major news events, reporting for WKYC-TV and NBC while keeping up with Cleveland’s jazz scene.

At the encouragement of the Tri-C JazzFest, Mosbrook authored two volumes of books titled Cleveland Jazz History, sharing the past for the future.