Joe has released six albums as a leader with the bands HNH, POLYLEMMA, Future Drone, TØRN, and his trio with Michael Moore & Greg Cohen. His work as sideman is released on labels such as MoersMusic, Cleanfeed, Red Toucan, jazzwerkstatt Berlin, Creative Sources, 2nd Floor/Loft-Cologne, Skirl, Leo, Engine, EvilRabbit, FMR, Chant, Gaucimusic, Konnex, Springstoff, Ravello/PARMA, Meta, muworks, Off, Fundacja Słuchaj, TroubleInTheEast, a.o.

He has performed at the Philharmonic in Cologne, Elbphilharmonic in Hamburg, and at the Moers Festival in Germany, the Warsaw Jazz Summer Days, Jazz&Wine for Peace in Cormons, Casa del Jazz in Rome, the Bush Hall London for BBC, the Opera House in Toronto, the World Trade Center in Dubai, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC, as well as Carnegie Hall (Weill), Webster Hall, Roulette, Issue Project Room, The Abrons Arts Center, The Stone, Dizzy's Club, Smalls, Ornithology, Nublu, the NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Vision Festival in New York City and many others. 

In 2005, the magazine AllAboutJazzNewYork hailed his drumming style as "...shaping the music from the bottom up." and for April 2011, the Managing Editor of TheNYCJazzRecord, Laurence Donohue-Greene, selected Joe's album Crespect by TØRN as "Recommended New Release". The same year, the website allaboutjazz.com praised his album POLYLEMMA as thus: "The soloists' focused interactions intimate a highly artistic game plan that supersedes the tried and true." POLYLEMMA won Belgian music critic Stef Gijssels' freejazzblog's Happy-New-Ears-Award 2011 for "most innovative listening experience". Joe’s album HNH2 made it on Gijssels’ list of top 10 albums of 2015: “Fantastic trumpet, bass, drums trio redefining the format through inventive music.” 

In its March 2020 issue, the NYCJazzRecord included "Hertenstein" as an answer in its monthly crossword puzzle: #cute.

In its January 2023 issue, TheNYCJazzRecord awarded his album LIVE DURING LOCKDOWN with Michael Moore & Greg Cohen "Best Live Album of 2022".
 

Joe has performed on & off as a member of

 

• Adam Rudolph's GO:Organic Orchestra

• Karl Berger's Improvisers Orchestra

• Cologne’s The James Choice/Multiple Choice Orchestra

• Hans Tammen's Third Eye Electric Band

• he was a member of Butch Morris’ ensembles Nublu Orchestra and LuckyCheng Orchestra​

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• jh3+Ray: Joe Hertenstein Trio featuring Michael Moore & Michael Formanek with special guest Ray Anderson

• Tim Hagans Quintet with Steve Wilson/Ravi Coltrane/Jon Irabagon, Luis Perdomo/Leo Genovese and Jay Anderson/Rufus Reid

• REMEDY with Thomas Heberer and Joe Fonda

• Peter van Huffel's Callisto feat. Lina Allemano and Antonis Anissegos

• Edith Steyer's "Quoting John Carter" feat. Rieko Okuda, Uli Kempendorff, Gerhard Gschlössl

• Stephen Gauci/Joe Hertenstein "Soundlift Berlin-New York" feat. Alex von Schlippenbach & Jan Roder

• Thomas Helton's The Core Trio with Seth Paynter

• Ivo Perelman's Scalene with Matthew Shipp

• Jeff Morris Trio with Karl Berger

• Elias Meister’s SPACEPILOT with Leo Genovese

• The Welf Dorr Unit with Keisuke Matsuno & Dmitry Ishenko

• Sana Nagano's SMASHING HUMANS with Peter Apfelbaum, Jonathan Goldberger/Keisuke Matsuno, Ken Filiano

• Aron Namenwirth Trio with Zack Swanson

• The Harvey Valdes Trio with Sana Nagano

• Sean Sonderegger’s “Magically Inclined” with Curtis Fowlkes, Kamala Sankaram, Harvey Valdes, Shawn Lovato

• 8Bit-Aesthetic with Michael Eaton, Sean Sonderegger and Shawn Lovato

• OURIDA with Jeff Miles & Ben Zwerin

• The MarKovSteinPrinciple with Francesco Marocci & Vasko Dukovski

• Kirk Bromley's Brooklyn's Finest Experimentalists

• Danny Kamins with Damon Smith

• Lior Millinger Trio with Hilliard Greene

2015 Joe was artist in residence at The Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida, which developed into the release of Jeff Morris' "Interfaces" with Karl Berger on Ravello/Parma Records.

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feel the one, skip the two, bang the three, sounds like me.