Gordon (Joe) is born in Boston.

Joe Gordon begins playing music as a bugler in a marching band, studies at the New England Conservatory, and goes on to play in the Sabby Lewis Band and tour with Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Parker. Acclaimed by some as the best jazz trumpeter that Boston has produced, Gordon dies from injuries sustained in a house fire in November 1963 at age 35.