I started playing organ in elementary school. We had a big Conn theater organ in our living room so at first I tried to play in that style. Into my teens I was introduced to rock, jazz, and blues by listening to ‘60s albums featuring Al Kooper, Steve Winwood, Lee Michaels, and Mike Rattledge from Soft Machine, the greatest prog-rock keyboard player of them all, despite his playing a piece of crap Lowrey. And then there was Billy Preston, who played the Hammond organ in its original gospel style as he sang George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” as the high point of Harrison’s memorial concert. Those guys, a half-dozen years older than me, were my icons. From age 18-24 I played full time in obscure rock bands. Our mantra was we’d play other people’s music but only we liked it. I even learned enough flute to fake it through a couple of Jethro Tull songs. We weren’t out to be stars, we just loved playing. As I neared my mid-20s the night life began losing its allure, and so it was with gratitude I accepted a factory rep job with a European distributor of every kind of keyboard from hand-built harpsichords to Solina string synthesizers. One of the perks of my job was attending the annual NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) convention in Chicago. Everyone in the USA who sold musical instruments attended this convention, which ran for the better part of a week, browsing miles of corridors as guys like me who were on the hunt for dealers would tempt them from our display booths to show off our latest offerings. One year, across the aisle from us was Rick Wakeman, promoting a keyboard in the form factor of a guitar. At NAMM everybody is equal in that they have given their lives to music. And the evening concerts featured the royalty of American talent, playing for a fraction of their usual fee. My favorite-ever NAMM concert was headlined by Ella Fitzgerald, backed by Count Basie’s band. As they say, a hard act to follow. During lulls during the day, two or three of my associates and I, keyboard players all, would wander the halls of the huge convention center, looking not for instruments but for the musicians who played them better than anybody else. As you can imagine, Joey DeFrancesco was a NAMM regular and a hit at every keyboard booth. He’d pick out a keyboard that sounded at least remotely like a Hammond, and usually with another top pro on a second keyboard, he’d transfix passers-by - at first with his virtuosity, but after a few minutes of shredding he’d fall back on an old standard and let his sublime mastery of the instrument wash over the silent crowd. Like me, many people became convinced by the musicianship of Jimmy Smith and Joey DeFrancesco that the Hammond organ played through Leslie speakers was the most beautiful sounding instrument of all. On one of my NAMM walkarounds with fellow keyboard players we came upon Joey’s mentor holding forth, standing at an intersection of two busy corridors, with a huge smile, saying hi to his fans. It was like seeing God. Jimmy Smith’s sharp eyes caught sight of our small, young quartet at the edge of his admirers. He broke into laughter and pointed at us, in a high voice saying, “There’s the guys who’ve been stealing my licks!” That got some good-natured laughter. And then he came over and shook each of our hands. I’m sure he used that line a thousand times, and more often than not he was right. It was because of Jimmy Smith my personal keyboard was a Hammond A100, the big brother to the Hammond B3 that could be found every recording studio across the country. When Jimmy Smith discovered the Hammond organ back in the early 60s, a recent innovation of its designers known as “percussion” provided an “attack” at the beginning of every note (unless other keys were held down) - that gave it its unique punchy sound. Backed by rotating Leslie speakers that added their own haunting, churchy 3D sound, the instrument covered a vast range of musical styles, and its players came up with some new ones of their own. Here for the first time was a keyboard that had sufficient power its player could play legato leads like a trumpet or guitar - able with single notes, and not the chords organ listeners were used to, to cut through the backup players and the general noise of a nightclub and carry a solo into the rafters, with shrieking high range passages that sounded as if the thing was alive. And in its way it was, in the sense that it was Hammond’s patented tone-wheel generators created an actual natural sound, a pure sine wave, that when amplified and combined with percussion and Leslie speakers, gave modern American music an entirely new voice from the unlikeliest source: a church organ designed to sound like a pipe organ, intended to take a Sunday congregation through their hymns. Jimmy Smith discovered the instrument’s unmatched purity of sound that, combined with the attack of its percussion and the lightning-fast delivery of notes that no mechanical keyboard could equal, gave him the sound-generating hardware with which he could develop into a bluesy, driving playing style that, it is not an overstatement to suggest, restored life to the jazz idiom which at the time was fading out of fashion, with its ever-more-abstract and obscure musical eccentricities that over time distanced jazz from its natural audience, not intellectuals but regular working people. Jimmy Smith’s brilliant playing style electrified (sorry) the jazz community, and his ability to make an electric instrument sound as natural as a horn or guitar, and his preference for energized, 12-bar blues as most of his music’s foundation, sounded both novel and yet somehow familiar to his early listeners, and he caught on with nearly everybody. Which is doubly impressive because here was a blues-oriented musician, a form considered in the early 60s by jazz fans to be past its prime, playing a church organ for goodness sake, and absolutely wailing, using his virtuosity and the Hammond’s powerful sound to win the approval of music lovers who felt rejuvenated to hear a return of the blues influence that was of course the foundation of jazz. Ever an ambassador for his craft, Jimmy Smith encouraged talented young musicians who played his instrument. He was sufficiently impressed by Joey’s talent - both were child prodigies - that Jimmy became his mentor. He saw that Joey knew how to make that Hammond wail, and with his modal playing style Joey took the Hammond sound a step beyond its bluesy origin - without losing the passion that the instrument conveyed. And like Jimmy, Joey laid down those driving bass lines using the pedals on top of playing lead and background on the keyboards. No wonder the organ is known as the king of instruments. How right it was that Joey Francesco picked up where Jimmy fell off in 2005, and how sad that he had only a few additional years to carry the flame. As we approach the anniversary of Joey’s passing, on Aug. 25 let us each take an hour out of our day and dedicate it a RU-vid session devoted to listening to our favorite Joey’s DeFrancesco tunes.
Been a fan of Joey's for years but what a gift this trio is... drummer is liquid sound and this guitarist is absolutely sublime. What a loss now that Joey has left us and this trio has now gone. So glad that we at least have this.
His total command of the keyboard leaves us transfixed and yearning for more. His B3 is going to heaven because he played the hell out of it! My sincere condolences to his entire family.
I read a massive heart attack. I found out about it when I was in the mood of Joe De maybe @ 6 weeks ago. A Great loss for all of us. Prayers to his family, gone to soon.
55-minutes of pure bliss - for all we know - tomorrow may never come - how prophetic. Joey didn't just sing the song - he was the song. He didn't just play the trumpet - he was the trumpet. He didn't just play the organ - he was the organ. And he loved every minute of it!
it amazes me that he can play a million notes with his hands and feet without any sheet music to go by- and it all comes out perfectly - as if it were just child's play to him. a true genius!
This concert is magical, and what a pleasure to see Joey come back to the HAMMOND organ, the real one, the authentic mythical B3, not a copy (nobody understood that Joey played on KEY B duo) This performance is really superb , exceptional musicians of finesse, they play to perfection, and Joey makes the B3 sing. Wonderful, amazing, no other word.
he was and always will be the best! and give the other 2 guys credit for being able to keep up with him for 55-minutes of creative joy!!! - Dan Wilson and Jason Brown
Minotauro di Chieti Minotauro di Chieti hace 2 años (editado) Tracklist: 00:18 - Just trippin' 12:13 - Wives & lovers 25:50 - For all we know 35:40 - Knock twice 48:58 - Let's go 12
The guitar man is kicking it with Joey blowing a bad trumpet... a first time for me to see Joey on a brass instrument, super music group all of them. Thank you.
Bro j is wicked now the student is the master teacher. 360 completion. I here so many organ players in 1 and a horn player also . He's in a class of his own .
I liked this JDF trio lime up best of all - and he's had many many fine drummers and guitarists over the years. Jason Brown - what in the pocket drumming is all about - and Dan has all the chops.
Well......... yes and no. When Suzuki bought the Hammond name, everybody was like... yeah right :( They shipped dozens of Hammonds, and Leslie speakers (they bought that name too) to Japan, ranging from bone stock to mildly warmed over to full blown modified jobs from rock groups. They flew tons of musicians over from all different music styles.. gospel and jazz and blues and rock. Suzuki watched and listened. The NEW Hammonds ARE Hammonds in every way... well, except for the weight. And, they incorporated all the different sounds from the modded ones into them at a push of a button, too. Check out on RU-vid "Robert Cray Cookin' in Mobile 2010". The entire concert is great, but the keyboardist has a solo on the song at 37:08. You can hear him step the Suzuki up a couple notches until it's really gritty and then takes you to church. It's all digital... but man it's a Hammond all the way. Even has the key click and the thumpy sound when he raps it with his fist. They aren't cheap (a single keyboard job is like $1,500, and a double with bass pedals is way up there), but it gives you the Hammond sound without slipping a disk moving it around ( B-3 takes four men and a small boy to move). And the Leslie speakers still use the same technology as the original ones. I used to lug three amps and five guitars around. Now... my one 40 pound amp can sound like any amp in the world. There are lots of blind sound checks on RU-vid... and it's 50/50 on picking which one's which. Oh and one guitar now, too.
His timing is incredible!! He has to know how it will sound before it comes out of his head. Plus you really have to have that rythem and blues thing down patt!! What a loss he was......You gotta admit nothing sounds like a Hammond B3.......He had to of really worked hard to get his act down.......
JOEY.......YOU WILL BE MISSED NOW MORETHAN EVER. A COUPLE ORGANISTS I KNEW WERE MAXIMILLIAN FROM BUFFALO AND LARRY WILSON. ME IF COURSE TOOK SOME LESSONS AND KNOW WHAT IS INVOLVED WITH SCALES AND WHAT NOT.......
