We refine Epstein's method to prove joint concavity/convexity of matrix trace functions of Lieb type Tr, where Φ and Ψ are positive linear maps, σ is an operator mean, and f (x γ ) with a certain power γ is an operator monotone function on (0, ∞). Moreover, the variational method of Carlen, Frank and Lieb is extended to general non-decreasing convex/concave functions on (0, ∞) so that we prove joint concavity/convexity of more trace functions of Lieb type.