When jazz aficionados think of Joey DeFrancesco--and they
often do--they ponder his matchless talents as a modern-day avatar of the Hammond
B3 organ and the Philadelphia history he shares with his principle instrument.
Organ-based blues and jazz started in Philly and DeFrancesco is the first to
tell you so.
DeFrancesco is adored for his buoyant, moody sense of swing
and balladry as a composer and as a player. That's a bluesy, blustery
sensibility shared with the men in his family: saxophonist/grandfather Joseph
DeFrancesco, and his father--organist "Papa" John DeFrancesco. Jazz
lovers also dig DeFrancesco's second instrument, the trumpet, and the
inspiration gleaned from his first big boss, Miles Davis--with whom DeFrancesco
gigged when the organist was in his late teens.
"All that--that's what's been expected of me, all of
which makes me proud, but there's so much more," says DeFrancesco on the
day he flew back to Philadelphia from his current home base of Phoenix.
DeFrancesco stopped by the City of Brotherly Love to receive a star on the
Philadelphia Music Walk of Fame alongside local giants such as Coltrane, Dizzy
and Nina Simone.
So for Joey DeFrancesco's Project Freedom--his debut for the
Mack Avenue Records label--DeFrancesco adds several feathers to his cap
including those of world traveling storyteller, quartet leader, freedom
fighter, peace maker, spiritual healer and genre-busting composer and cover
artist. "All of my albums mean a lot to me," he says. "Project
Freedom though--this one means just a little bit more."
Quick to mention the influence of Philadelphia in every note
that he plays--"that's where all my initial inspiration comes from,"
he explains--DeFrancesco looks beyond worshipping at the altar of Hammond B3
priests such as Jimmy Smith and Jimmy McGriff on Project Freedom. "It was
never JUST organ and it was never JUST jazz for me," says DeFrancesco of a
personal past that figures into new songs, such as the space-funk of the title
track or what he calls the "free soul" of Sam Cooke's emotional
"A Change Is Gonna Come."
Stylistically, DeFrancesco has long believed that his
approach to playing and composing comes from the saxophone. "It's that
sense of breathing that affects everything," explains DeFrancesco.
An homage to John Lennon opens Project Freedom with a
gorgeous snippet of "Imagine" (Prelude) with a soaring tribute to J.
Rosamond Johnson's uplifting composition, "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
rounding out the purifying package. Mostly though, it's DeFrancesco's existence
as a spiritual being--walking in the footsteps of humanity's inherent
goodness--that is at the heart of Project Freedom. "There are notes and
rhythms, sure, but it is how you live your life that is most crucial," he
says. "It's how you play AND present yourself."
Being a frequent flyer with a globe-hopping world touring
schedule has given DeFrancesco insight into differing--but not
opposing--viewpoints that he longed to espouse through music. "I always
thought that as touring musicians, we were spreading peace. No matter what
happens in the world, we keep playing. In a lot of the so-called forbidden
places too. When we're there, through war and conflict, problems melt away
through music. We're playing for these people, hanging out with them, and we
all come together and we're grooving with each other because of the music. That
is true freedom. Music is true freedom."
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