JOEY  DEFRANCESCO TRIO
Saturday, May 17 – 8:00 PM

Rose & Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center
3100 Ray Ferrero, Jr Blvd
Fort Lauderdale, FL 33314
(Map and Directions)

 Tickets: 877.311.SHOW (Toll-free) or purchase HERE 

Joey DeFrancesco, the leading protagonist behind jazz organ’s enormous jazz resurgence, is an extraordinarily accomplished player steeped in the rich tradition of Jimmy Smith, the man who single-handedly wrestled the Hammond B-3 into the modern jazz era.

Since his precocious and startling debut with Miles Davis at the tender age of 17, Joey DeFrancesco can be credited with rekindling the flame of jazz organ.  Truly a child prodigy on the instrument, Joey’s musical spirit was sparked at age four by Jimmy Smith’s recording, The Sermon. Joey was playing the piano, by ear of course, at the time. He comes by this talent through strong bloodlines.  His father, Papa John DeFrancesco, is a legendary Philadelphia organist. His grandfather, Joe DeFrancesco, was a multi-instrumentalist who played in both Dorsey brothers’ bands.

Papa John let Joey sit in at his club dates when he was only seven or eight. By the age of ten he was playing weekend gigs for money and getting first-hand experience from the serious players coming through Philadelphia such as Jimmy Smith and Jack McDuff. At 16 he was a Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition finalist and the winner of the Philadelphia Jazz Society’s McCoy Tyner Scholarship award.  Joey met Miles Davis on a local TV show and was invited to tour with the Prince of Darkness and appeared on two Miles Davis albums while still only 17 years old. Columbia Records signed him to a four-record contract and Joey’s career took off. Joey now records for Concord Records.

Joey has always admired and was greatly influenced by Jimmy Smith, the blues-drenched, hardbop, single-note player with impeccable technique and amazing groove. Joey also credits Larry Young for incorporating the John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, McCoy Tyner approach to the organ – a major innovation. Joey regards his personal style as more of a Miles Davis – John Coltrane type of player, but listening to him, it is obvious that he is significantly in the mode of Jimmy Smith.  Joey’s style is hard driving and bluesy, deftly mixing complexity and simplicity while making music that is as alluring as it is compelling.  He swings ferociously, executing spot-on single-note lines with imaginative bass lines underneath them.  He can dig deep into the pocket or float over the time.  No one else is capable of doing anything similar and that is precisely the reason Joey, while just a shade over 30 years old, is the reigning king of the Hammond B3 organ with an amazing 21 CDs recorded as a leader, the most recent titled Joey DeFrancesco Live: The Authorized Bootleg. On this date, Joey will be accompanied by his new touring band with keyboardist Patrick Bianchi and drummer Byron Landham.