Joe Farnsworth was one of five sons born to trumpeter and bandleader Roger Farnsworth, one of the brothers played saxophone in Ray Charles’s band. He attended high school in Jakarta International School in Jakarta, Indonesia. He studied at William Paterson College, studying under Harold Mabern and Arthur Taylor and receiving his Bachelor of Music in 1990. During the 1990s he played with Junior Cook, Jon Hendricks, Jon Faddis, George Coleman, Cecil Payne, Annie Ross, and Benny Green.
He has played in the group One for All since 1995 with David Hazeltine and Jim Rotondi, and worked with Benny Golson, Steve Davis, and Eric Alexander in the second half of the 1990s. During that period he also played with Alex Graham, Michael Weiss, the Three Baritone Saxophone Band, and Diana Krall. He has been a member of Pharoah Sanders’ band.