The death of American musician Joey Defrancesco, who played many instruments, is being discussed on Twitter and Facebook. He died suddenly from things beyond his control and jazz fans couldn’t stop thinking about how much he had done for the genre.
American jazz musician DeFrancesco played the organ, trumpet, saxophone and sometimes sang. Early in his career he played on many recordings with well-known musicians such as Miles Davis, Houston Person and John McLaughlin. Since then he has released more than 30 albums alone.
Joey Defrancesco on losing weight and being sick
The death of Joey Defrancesco was linked to the fact that he lost weight and had problems measuring his body. It was said that his body and health had been deteriorating for a very long time.
The jazz musician died at his home on August 25, 2022. However, some reports state that the deceased person had long struggled with fatal health problems. As a result, his health continued to deteriorate and vital organs were injured.
For this reason, he was looked after by the medical team for a very long time. However, he died, leaving almost everyone in a state of deep shock.
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 Philadelphia-area jazz organist.
He started playing the piano at the age of four, but quickly switched to his father’s Hammond B-3 because he liked the sound better than the synthesizers of the time, which had replaced the piano as the most popular instrument.
Around the age of six he accompanied his father to his club appearances. By the time he was ten, he was being paid to play weekends and fill in for the likes of Groove Holmes and Jack McDuff.
What happened to the musician’s health? How did he die?
Joey Defrancesco has long struggled with serious health issues that caused his health to slowly deteriorate and damage vital organs that he needed to survive.
Although he was examined by doctors for a long time, he had to die, which shocked almost everyone.
His family has not yet commented on his death. He asks his followers to give them privacy at this difficult time as they are unable to speak to other people and are still in shock over the death of a close family member.
DeFrancesco’s music has everything from soul jazz and bluesy rhythms in the style of Jimmy Smith to hard bop and the sophisticated modal style of Larry Young, a student of John Coltrane. He was a major reason the Hammond B-3 organ returned to jazz music in the 1970s and 1980s.
He has worked with many different musicians including Miles Davis, Larry Coryell, Benny Golson, George Benson and many more. 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 both as a sideman and as a solo artist.
How I grew up and went to school
Joey DeFrancesco was born in 1971 in the town of Springfield, Pennsylvania.
He was born into a family of jazz musicians that stretched back three generations. He was named after his jazz musician grandfather, Joseph DeFrancesco, who played the clarinet and saxophone. His father, “Papa” John DeFrancesco, was a nationwide organist who won the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame’s Living Legend Award in 2013. DeFrancesco began playing the organ at the age of 4, playing Jimmy Smith songs note for note. At the age of 5 his father John started taking him to shows and making him sit on sets. At the age of 10, DeFrancesco joined a band in Philadelphia. Hank Mobley and Philly Joe Jones, both jazz musicians, were in the band. He was a regular at jazz clubs in the area, opening 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’s McCoy Tyner Scholarship. At the first Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition he made it to the finals.
Career
Joey DeFrancesco was 16 years old when he signed to Columbia Records as a sole artist. The next year he released his first record entitled All of Me. People say his work on “All of Me” helped bring the organ back into jazz music in the 1980s. That same year, DeFrancesco went on a five-week concert tour of Europe with Miles Davis and his band. He then played keyboards on Miles Davis’ 1989 album Amandla, which topped the contemporary jazz album chart in 1989. Around the same time, DeFrancesco began playing the trumpet after hearing Davis play. Davis first noticed DeFrancesco when he was in an appearance on the TV show Time Out. He and his high school classmate Christian McBride were playing on set when Davis asked the show’s host, “What’s the name of your organ player?” 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 Were You in 1990, Part III in 1991, Rebopin in 1992, and Live at the 5 Spot in 1993.
At 18, DeFrancesco toured with his own quartet. In the early 1990s he began collaborating with John McLaughlin, leader of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and guitarist for Miles Davis. At the age of 22 he joined McLaughlin and drummer Dennis Chambers to form the band The Free Spirits. He toured with the group for four years and was featured on a number of albums including Tokyo Live and After the Rain. The Tokyo Live album also states that DeFrancesco played trumpet on it.
In 2010, Joey DeFrancesco played at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam
The album Incredible! was produced by DeFrancesco in 1999. They played live at the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Jimmy Smith, who was his idol, played with DeFrancesco on two songs from the album. In 2004, DeFrancesco made the album Legacy, which also featured Jimmy Smith. Smith died the same year as the album’s release.
In 2004, DeFrancesco’s album Falling in Love Again was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2009, DeFrancesco’s career took a slight turn when Amy Adams and Alec Newman starred in the film Moonlight Serenade. He played “Frank D” in the film and was also credited as the film’s composer and producer. DeFrancesco was nominated for another Grammy Award in 2011 for Never Can Say Goodbye: The Music of Michael Jackson. This album was nominated for Best Contemporary Jazz Album. [4] The recording was released in 2010 to honor Michael Jackson. One of Joey DeFrancesco’s other tribute albums is called “Joey DeFrancesco Plays Sinatra His Way” and pays homage to Frank Sinatra. DeFrancesco also turned 40 in 2011. He celebrated this by releasing his 29th album, 40, which topped the jazz charts in both the United States and Europe.
music style
People said that DeFrancesco’s music had a “swinging Philly sound” that he “improvised and augmented with his own ferocity.” He played more than 200 nights a year during his career, but stopped doing so as of 2013. JazzTimes named him the best B3 player in the world and praised him for his achievements. The New York Times called DeFrancesco a “profoundly authoritative musician, a master of the rhythmic bag and the habit of pounding basslines beneath chords and riffs”. “He dominated the instrument and the field like no other of his generation,” the Chicago Tribune said of DeFrancesco’s music. DeFrancesco was also involved in the design and development of musical instruments, particularly digital keyboards and electronic organs, both in the United States and around the world.
“Mr. DeFrancesco is a very skilled musician who knows how to put bass lines under chords and riffs by stomping on them.” – The New York Times
multi-instrumentalist
Joey DeFrancesco is a multi-instrumentalist who has recorded on a variety of keyboards (including acoustic and electric piano) and trumpet. DeFrancesco is best known as a jazz organist, but he has also sung and played the saxophone since around 2018.
Prizes and awards
Joey DeFrancesco has been nominated four times for a Grammy Award and has had more than 30 solo albums. DeFrancesco was nominated for a Grammy in 2004, 2010 and 2020. He has also won the Down Beat Critics Poll for organ nine times and the Down Beat Readers Poll every year since 2005. He also won several JazzTimes Awards. DeFrancesco was one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Hammond Hall of Fame in 2013. He was there with Brian Auger, Billy Preston, Steve Winwood and his mentor Jimmy Smith.