Dr. Gilman has been the primary pianist with the Sacramento Jazz Orchestra since 2010, and was the primary pianist with jazz vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson from 2006-2016. He has also performed professionally with Eddie Harris, Woody Shaw, Marlena Shaw, Richie Cole, Joe Locke, George Duke, Chris Botti, Eric Alexander, Anthony Wilson, Nicholas Payton, Russell Malone, Charles McPherson, Wycliffe Gordon, David “Fathead” Newman, and Slide Hampton, and has recorded with Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, Frank Morgan, Jeff Watts, Robert Hurst, Tootie Heath, and Larry Grenadier. Dr. Gilman has twice been an International Jazz Ambassador through the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and USIA, traveling to West Africa in 1999 and East and Southern Africa in 2000.

He won the 1998 Sacramento Metropolitan Arts Commission Emerging Artist Award and the 2000 Sacramento News and Review SAMMIES Critical Achievement award for contribution to the arts community. Joe was the 2001 American River College Student Association Instructor of the Year and was named the first Brubeck Scholar at the 2005 Brubeck Festival. In 2004, Joe won the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, Florida. Dr. Gilman’s work with students at the Brubeck Institute has produced several CDs – Brubeck Revisited Vols. 1 and 2 (Sunnyside), Wonder Revisited Vols. 1 and 2, Americanvas, and Relativity (Capri) – all recorded with Brubeck Institute fellows. His work with the students at the Brubeck Institute and American River College has resulted in twenty DownBeat Magazine student awards.