Story and Photos by Manny Meland

Organ virtuoso Joey DeFrancesco was playing at Arturo Sandoval’s Jazz Club. This was too close to home to ignore.

My friend Allan had caught his act in New York a few years ago. When he found out that DeFrancesco was playing at Sandoval’s club in the Deauville Beach Resort, he eagerly made reservations. It was just a cab ride away.

I saw Joey DeFrancesco last July at the Montreal Jazz Festival. He played the Theatre Jean Deceppe in downtown Montreal together with Bireli Lagrene on guitar and Andre Ceccarreli on drums. They did a gig called “Make Mine a Triple”. For, me it was a  home run.

Joey is part of a musical dynasty. His grandfather was multi-instrumentalist Joe DeFrancesco and his father was Hammond B3 player “Papa” John DeFrancesco.

Jazz Times and Downbeat voted him winner of both critic awards and readers’ poll award in 2005. He was also nominated for best jazz instrumental solo at the Grammys in 2003.

Now he was playing in front of us, with guitarist Jake Langly and percussionist Byron Landham. He bluesed the room with “Where Were You”, he torched us with “For All We Know” and then we swung to his “Organic Vibes”.