Joel Frahm, born in 1970 in Racine, Wisconsin, is an American jazz tenor
saxophonist who began playing the tenor saxophone while attending the Stephen
Bull Fine Arts School. After his family moved to Hartford, Connecticut, he
joined the high‑school jazz program and met pianist Brad Mehldau, with whom he
performed weekly in Hartford and New York. Frahm earned a bachelor’s degree from
the Manhattan School of Music. He debuted on Palmetto’s Sorry, No Decaf in 1998
and followed with Don’t Explain (2001).