Joey
De Francesco has come a long way since ‘All of Me’, his recording debut as a
17-year-old leader in 1989. From the word go, the Philadelphia native
established his credentials with virtuoso technique and an innate soulfulness
that he brought to bear on the hulking Hammond B-3 organ which belied his young
age but spoke of his deep Philly roots under the tutelage of his father, Papa
John De Francesco, a B-3 burner in his own right. Through the 1990s, Joey was
widely recognised as spearheading a renewed interest in the Hammond organ, an
instrument that had fallen out of favor among musicians and the public since its
golden period during the 1960s and early 70s.
Joey
was once described as ‘dazzling’ by guitar great Pat Martino, himself a
veteran of many classic B-3 sessions. Combining monstrous chops with a flair for
showmanship and an unquenchable urge to burn, De Francesco almost
single-handedly put the Beast back in the public eye. As the late critic Leonard
Feather wrote in the liner notes to his 1994 recording, ‘All About My Girl’:
No less significant in the story of Joey’s ascendancy is the ability he has
shown to create excitement. The tension he is capable of building brings back to
mind a tradition that began some 50 years ago, when Norman Granz’ Jazz at the
Philharmonic concerts began stirring up audiences around the country. Listen to
a ˜Donna Lee” and other cuts on this CD and you can hardly fail to be moved
by the emotion Joey and his colleagues generate.Today De Francesco is regarded by organ aficionados as the baddest B-3 burner in the business (a claim supported by his five consecutive DownBeat Critics Poll awards for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006). And while Joey has never made any boastful claims about his own ranking among the organ elite on the contrary, he has always respectfully deferred to his B-3 elders, the fact is, no organist today plays with the skill, harmonic depth, and authority of this phenomenon from Philly. With over 20 solo releases and historic associations with legends such as Miles Davis, Jimmy Smith, Bobby Hutcherson, Elvin Jones and John McLaughlin, DeFrancesco's place in the idiom’s history is cemented.