JOE DELIA
Is an internationally-acclaimed pianist and film composer with 40-plus feature film scores to his credit. He is best known locally for his “stacked keyboard” playing with the Nancy Atlas Project and for his own East End anthems— “Fire in my Belly” and “Under the Montauk Moon.”
Delia started his music career in his early teens signing to RCA Records and to management with Sid Bernstein. After that, as a studio musician in NYC and as piano player, arranger, and touring musician, he worked with various artists, including Pat Benatar, Dusty Springfield, Stanley Turrentine, Freddie Hubbard, Phoebe Snow, Dave Edmunds, Kim Larsen, Bruce Springsteen, and Keith Richards. Delia spent years on stage with Richard Belzer creating comedy specials and live acts. He collaborated with former New York Dolls frontman David Johansen for six years as musical director for the Buster Poindexter show, which yielded the world-wide hit song “Hot, Hot, Hot.”
Well known for his collaboration with director Abel Ferrara, composing film scores for most of Ferrara’s films including, among others, “Ms 45”, “King of New York”, and “The Bad Lieutenant ''. The most recent of that collaboration is “Padre Pio”, starring Shia LaBeouf, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival and won Delia Best original score at the Sienna Film Festival in 2022.
The proud parents of son Jake, Delia and his wife, PJ, live in Montauk with their two cats. These days are spent working on themes for a new Ferrara feature “American Nails”, starring Willem Dafoe, and nights are spent playing all over the East End. He is also an active member of the local recovery community, and plays the Hammond B3 every Sunday at the Calvary Baptist Church in East Hampton.
by Daniel Gonzalez Photography
