Joe has performed with many leading Irish and overseas jazz musicians including Len McCarthy, Louis Stewart, Ronan Guilfoyle, Sean Carpio, Richie Buckley, Michael Buckley, CSL Parker, Honor Heffernan, Jim Doherty, Maria Tecce, Dorothy Murphy, Mike Neilsen, Tommy Halferty, Brian Dunning, Hugh Buckley, Nick Roth, Ivan Paduart, Martin Speake, Linley Hamilton, Julian Arguelles, Dave Liebman,Tom Rainey, Nils Wogram, John Rocco, Tanya Kalmanovitch, Paul Williamson, Vincent Courtois.
Joe was a member of Ronan Guilfoyle`s bands Microclimate and Metier and also played in many major works of Ronan`s,including `Simulacrum`- at Mermaid theatre in Bray,and –`Terms and conditions apply` -at the Project Arts Centre,Dublin.
In August 2007,he played in Dublin with Ronan to celebrate the 60th birthday of renowned USA sax player ,Dave Liebman,on a piece titled “Hand,Head,Heart”, with a quintet featuring Dave Liebman.
Joe played with FuzzyLogicEnsemble,a band led by Dylan Rynhart and played on the album `Mouthpiece`.
Currently, he has his own group `Electric Freeplay`.
Joe also has a trio,called Sankhara, with pianist Izumi Kimura and bassist Derek Whyte, and recorded their debut album, The Silent Tree, in 2020. Sankhara have appeared at the Limerick Jazz Festival in 2020 and recorded a performance here [https://youtu.be/dKISc5dl1ok?si=KTiaN3uyFfolCmCX&t=3080] for Sligo Jazz Festival 2021.
Joe and Izumi recorded and premiered, in 2020, a work by composer Ian Wilson,called Adaptation,which was part of Clare County Council`s “ Gaining Ground” Public art Programme2017-2020.
Joe also works as a tutor for the Limerick Jazz Workshop which teaches adults and teenagers the fundamentals of jazz and regularly holds student concerts in the Limerick area.
In June 2022 ,Joe played on a project of Ronan Guilfoyle`s in Paris. ‘A Bit Of A Peregrination’ is an extended composition and spoken-word piece, commissioned by the CCI and inspired by James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’. It is a unique work that combines Ronan Guilfoyle’s rhythms of West African influence rhythms with passages from the book performed by Janet Moran, as well as featuring a group of French and Irish contemporary jazz musicians. Delving into the inner world of Joyce’s classic novel, ‘A Bit Of A Peregrination’ sheds light onto it in a very different way.
In September 2022, as part of the Limerick Jazz Festival, Joe was a member of The Limerick Jazz Festival 40th Anniversary All Star Big Band, performing a suite of music called The Eternal Flame, written and conducted by the Irish ,New York based jazz musician, arranger and composer, David O`Rourke.
In 2024,Joe recorded an album with renowned American jazz musician Benjamin Boone, called `Confluence;The Ireland Sessions` which was released on the US record label Origin Records. A second album was also recorded with Benjamin in late 2024, following a 6 date Irish tour, and this album is due for release in late 2025.
Joe continues to work with his trio Sankhara , which played at The Cooler in Dublin in May 2025.
Joe is also a member of the jazz/fusion band Magical Dog ,playing some of the classic 70`s music of musicians including John McLaughlin, Jan Hammer ,Steve Grossman, John Abercrombie.
Joe has also just formed a new acoustic quartet with John Daly on percussion,Eddie o Donovan on guitar and renowned Irish traditional flute player Eamonn Cotter, featuring new compositions by Joe.
Short review: www.allaboutjazz.com of a solo performance at the 2019 Galway Jazz Festival:
Despite turning up at Coffeewerk Press half an hour early for Joe O'Callaghan's second gig of the festival, it was too late -all three seats had already been taken. Standing it was. However, that's not such a hardship when you're part of a very intimate audience for one of the world's greatest guitarists. O'Callaghan's main gig is currently a trio with Izumi Kimura and Derek Whyte, but his solo gigs are truly special occasions.
A one-hour set was book-ended with bewitching interpretations of two Irish staples—"Danny Boy" and "She Moved Through the Fair." In between, O'Callaghan presented his own highly original compositions and the odd standard. The common denominator throughout was the guitarist's dazzling technique. Yet even in the heat of his most feverish runs there was a musicality, a heightened melodic and rhythmic sense that evoked John McLaughlin.
O'Callaghan paid heartfelt tribute to the late Louis Stewart with an imaginative arrangement of Jimmy Van Heusen/Eddie DeLange's "Darn That Dream" that took the audience on a thrilling ride into the unknown. O'Callaghan's originals were cut from a more contemporary cloth but were no less captivating. "Fragments" and "Reflections," both saw the guitarist tear into echo-drenched, bluesy runs over looped ostinatos.
From first note to last of this free gig O'Callaghan cast a wicked spell. The audience may have been small, but it was witness to a mesmerizing performance from a world-class guitarist. An absolute highlight of GJF19. br>