Joe Baiza

In late 2013 The Cornelius Projects in San Pedro hosted The Mind of Joe Baiza - Paintings, Drawings, Photographs & Artifacts.

Baiza is a founding member of the bands Saccharine Trust, Universal Congress Of, and The Mecolodiacs. He also performed guest guitar spots on several Minutemen tracks and played alongside Black Flag's Greg Ginn and Chuck Dukowski in the SST all-star jam band October Faction, recording two albums with them. Baiza was also part of the musical side project Nastassya Filippovna which featured Bob Lee (drums), Devin Sarno (bass) and Mike Watt (bass). He substituted for Nels Cline during Mike Watt's European and American tours behind his second solo album, Contemplating the Engine Room, in 1997 and 1998. Also in 1997, he and Cline played (sometimes together) in the band Solo Career with Lee (drums), Richard Derrick (bass), Walter Zooi (trumpet) and Gustavo Aguilar (percussion); other guitarists in that rotating ensemble included Mario Lalli, Woody Aplanalp and Ken Rosser. Currently, he is in the reunited Saccharine Trust as well as the improvisational unit Unknown Instructors with former Minutemen Mike Watt and George Hurley.

Baiza is also an accomplished visual artist. In 1983 he illustrated the cover of the Minutemen's record Buzz or Howl Under the Influence of Heat. The illustration depicts the faces of D. Boon and Mike Watt engaged in heated dialogue as they so often did as friends and musical collaborators.

Joe Baiza (born January 11, 1952) is a punk rock and jazz guitarist whom Eugene Chadbourne cites as one of the most noteworthy guitarists to emerge from the Southern California punk rock milieu.