On Twitter and Facebook, people are talking about the death of American multi-instrumentalist Joey DeFrancesco. He died suddenly of causes beyond his control, and jazz fans can’t stop thinking about how much he did for the genre.
American jazz musician DeFrancesco played organ, trumpet, saxophone, and sometimes sang. Early in his career, he played on several recordings with well-known musicians such as Miles Davis, Houston Burson and John McLaughlin. Since then, he has released more than 30 albums on his own.
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Joey DeFrancesco on Losing Weight and Being Sick
Joey DeFrancesco’s death has been linked to his weight loss and a problem with how his body was measured. It is said that his body and health condition has been deteriorating for a long time.
The jazz musician died on August 25, 2022 at his home. But some reports suggest that the deceased had been dealing with serious health issues for a long time. This caused his health to deteriorate and injured his vital organs.
Due to this, the medical team was treating him for a long time. However, he died, which shocked almost everyone.
DeFrancesco was born on April 10, 1971 in Springfield, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia. His grandfather, Joe DeFrancesco, was a multi-instrumentalist who played with the Dorsey brothers. His father, Papa John DeFrancesco, was also a jazz arranger from the Philadelphia area.
When he was four years old, he started playing the piano, but he quickly switched to his father’s Hammond B-3 because it replaced the piano as the most popular instrument, rather than the synthesizers of the time.
At the age of six, he started joining his father at his club gigs. By the time he was ten, he was getting paid to play on weekends and fill in for musicians such as Groove Holmes and Jack McDuff.
What happened to the musician’s health? How did he die?
Joey DeFrancesco has been dealing with serious health issues for a long time that have slowly deteriorated his health and damaged the vital organs he needs to stay alive.
Although the doctors were looking after him for a long time, his death came as a shock to almost everyone.
His family has yet to comment on his death. Unable to talk to others and still reeling from the death of a close family member, she asks her followers to give her privacy during this difficult time.
DiFrancesco’s music ranges from soul-jazz and bluesy rhythms in the style of Jimmy Smith to hard pop and the sophisticated sampling style of Larry Young, a student of John Coltrane. He was a big reason for the return of the Hammond B-3 organ to jazz music in the 1970s and 1980s.
He has worked with various musicians like Miles Davis, Larry Coryell, Benny Coulson, George Benson and many others. Several of his albums, such as Enjoy the View (2014) and Project Freedom, have earned him Grammy nominations (2017).
DeFrancesco has released more than 30 albums under his own name and is in high demand as a sideman and as a soloist.
How I grew up and went to school
Joey DeFrancesco was born in 1971 in Springfield, Pennsylvania.
He was born into a family of jazz musicians going back three generations. He was named after his jazz musician grandfather, Joseph DeFrancesco, who played clarinet and saxophone. His father, “Papa” John DiFrancesco, was an organist who played around the country and won a Living Legend Award from the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame in 2013. DeFrancesco started playing the organ at the age of 4. 5, he can play Jimmy Smith songs for reference. At the age of 5, his father John took him to shows and sat on the set. At age 10, DeFrancesco joined a band in Philadelphia. Jazz musicians Hank Mobley and Billy Joe Jones were in the band. He was a regular at area jazz clubs and opened for Wynton Marsalis and BB King.
Joey DeFrancesco attended the High School for Creative and Performing Arts in Philadelphia. There he learned to play the piano and organ. DeFrancesco won many awards in high school, including the Philadelphia Jazz Society McCoy Diener Scholarship. In the first Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, he advanced to the final round.
profession
Joey DeFrancesco was 16 when he signed a contract as a solo artist with Columbia Records. The following year, he released his first record, which was called “All of Me”. People say his work on “All of Me” in the 1980s helped bring the organ back into jazz music. That same year, DeFrancesco embarked on a five-week concert tour of Europe with Miles Davis and his band. He later played keyboards on Miles Davis’ album Amandla, which reached number one on the Contemporary Jazz Albums chart in 1989. Around the same time, DeFrancesco began playing the trumpet after hearing Davis’ music. Davis first noticed DeFrancesco during a TV show called Time Out. Davis asked the host of the show, “What’s your organ player’s name?” He and his high school classmate Christian McBride were playing on set when asked. He was talking about DeFrancesco. As part of his record deal with Columbia, DeFrancesco released five albums. In addition to All of Me, he released Where Are You in 1990, Part III in 1991, Rebobin in 1992 and Live at the 5 Spot in 1993.
At 18, DeFrancesco toured with his own quartet. In the early 1990s, he began working with John McLaughlin, leader of the band Mahavishnu and guitarist for Miles Davis. At age 22, he formed a band called The Free Spirits with McLaughlin and drummer Dennis Chambers. He toured with the group for four years and was on several albums such as Tokyo Live and After the Rain. The Tokyo Live album also claims DeFrancesco played trumpet on it.
In 2010, Joey DeFrancesco played at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam
Incredible album! Created by DeFrancesco in 1999. At the San Francisco Jazz Festival, they played live. His idol, Jimmy Smith, played with DeFrancesco on two songs on the album. In 2004, DeFrancesco produced the album Legacy, which also featured Jimmy Smith. Smith died the same year the album was released.
In 2004, DeFrancesco’s album Falling in Love Again was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2009, DeFrancesco’s career took a small turn when he starred alongside Amy Adams and Alec Newman in Moonlight Serenade. He played the role of “Frank T” in the film and was also listed as the film’s music composer and producer. DeFrancesco received another Grammy Award nomination in 2011 for Never Can Say Goodbye- The Music of Michael Jackson. The album is up for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. [4] This record was released in 2010 as a tribute to Michael Jackson. One of Joey DeFrancesco’s other tribute albums is called “Joey DeFrancesco Plays Sinatra His Way” and is a tribute to Frank Sinatra. DeFrancesco turned 40 in 2011. He celebrated by releasing his 29th album, “40”, which topped the jazz charts in both the US and Europe.
Musical style
People said DeFrancesco’s music had a “swinging Philly sound” that he “enhanced and infused with his own ferocity.” During his career, he played more than 200 nights a year, but in 2013, he stopped doing that. Jazz Times called him the best B3 player on the planet and gave him a lot of praise for his performance. The New York Times called DeFrancesco “a profoundly authoritative musician, master of the rhythm pocket and accustomed to hammering bass lines under chords and riffs.” The Chicago Tribune said of DeFrancesco’s music, “He dominated the instrument and the field like no other of his generation. DeFrancesco was also involved in the design and development of musical instruments, particularly digital keyboards and electronic organs, throughout the United States and the world.”
“Mr. DeFrancesco is a highly skilled musician who knows how to weave bass lines under chords and riffs. — The New York Times
A multi-instrumentalist
Joey DeFrancesco is a multi-instrumentalist who has recorded using different keyboards (including acoustic and electric piano) and trumpet. DeFrancesco is best known as a jazz organist, but he has been playing the saxophone since 2018.
Prizes and Awards
Joey DeFrancesco is a four-time Grammy Award nominee and has over 30 solo albums. DeFrancesco was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2004, 2010 and 2020. He has also won the Downbeat Critics’ Poll for the organ nine times and the Downbeat Readers’ Poll every year since 2005. He also won several Jazz Times awards. DeFrancesco was one of the first musicians inducted into the Hammond Hall of Fame in 2013. He was accompanied by Brian Auger, Billy Preston, Steve Winwood and his mentor Jimmy Smith.