Joey DeFrancesco with Special Guest Jimmy Smith:

When the two undisputed masters of the Hammond B-3 organ settled into Tempest Recording in Tempe, Arizona, for three days in August 2004, history was made.  In their first studio collaboration, Joey DeFrancesco, the 34-year-old B-3 phenom who almost single-handedly jumpstarted the revival of jazz organ in the 1990s, linked up with Jimmy Smith, the 79-year-old B-3 innovator who to this day remains unsurpassed as  the maestro of the instrument. The result is the Concord Jazz release, Legacy, a scintillating set of B-3 pleasure that runs the gamut from juicy funk and grooving blues to Latin-charged cookers and coolly swinging straight-ahead beauties.

The pair goes back a long way. “I first met [Joey] when he was seven years old,”
says Smith. “His daddy brought him to see me up in Harlem.” He pauses and laughs when recalling hearing DeFrancesco play back then. “I knew then that he was second best.” To this day, he still holds the same estimation: “After Joey, nobody else is close. That’s the truth.”

DeFrancesco recalls his dad, Papa John DeFrancesco, also a Hammond ace, taking him to see Smith regularly. “I have pictures of me with Jimmy,” he says. “I first met him when I was seven, then went to see him when I was 10, 11, 13…He’d listen to me and was always encouraging. Jimmy was such a huge influence on my playing.”

By the time DeFrancesco was 17, he rocked the jazz world with his debut, All of Me, on Columbia. Suddenly the Hammond B-3, which had been relegated to the sidelines for years, enjoyed a revitalization of popularity. Even though he never stopped playing and touring, Smith got swept up in the resurgence of interest. Today, DeFrancesco says there was always love and respect between the two. “We’d play together, do stuff like jam on one organ. It was a dream to play with him.”

The two linked up last year in Phoenix. DeFrancesco was living there, and Smith and his ailing wife Lola moved there in February from Sacramento, Calif. The two organists hung out a little, but bonded strongly after Smith’s wife passed. “We were getting closer and closer, but now we’re inseparable,” DeFrancesco says. “We began jamming together and hanging out more and more. So, finally I asked him, ‘Do you want to make a record?’ And he was into it.”

DeFrancesco felt that Smith’s last few albums didn’t represent what the B-3 bomber could do. So, he put together a strong band, developed a set list and brought Smith into the studio. “I really wanted to challenge him, to get some guys playing with him who would kick his ass. Jimmy rose to the occasion. It was a joy, and Jimmy’s playing stronger than ever, and with a greater range of musical harmony. He even plays some avant-garde stuff. He’s a master of that. You’ve got to remember that John Coltrane was in Jimmy’s first trio and Trane learned a lot from him.”

As for the Legacy sessions, DeFrancesco says, “There was a lot of love involved.
After the first night, Jimmy came up to me and gave me a big hug. That’s what makes this album so special.” Smith jokes, “There’s me and then there’s Joey. I’m the robber and he’s the sheriff.”

DeFrancesco plays B-3 on most of the tracks, but also delivers some numbers on the piano. “I play all over the album, but I gave it all to Jimmy,” he says. “He takes
a lot of solos, which is great. And we play off each other. It’s all spontaneous and
we captured it live, without overdubs. You can hear Jimmy having a great time. I play the piano for contrast. A lot of organ players don’t know how to play it, but I love the instrument. And, hey, sometimes listening to two organs can get boring!”

The piano is prominent in the title track, a DeFrancesco composition that reminds him of Coltrane. “I wanted to play some McCoy Tyner-like stuff and I was thinking of Jimmy as the tenor saxophone. He loved it. It knocked him out. You can hear him say ‘killa’ at the end.” The tune also features guitarist Paul Bollenback playing the sitar and drummer Byron Landham playing a gong.

DeFrancesco also brought one of Smith’s classics, “Back at the Chicken Shack,” into the session with a Latin backing, including the Banda Brothers—Ramon on timbales and Tony on bass—from Poncho Sanchez’s band. The tune is spirited and spicy, with Smith taking a break of spine-tingling fast lines. Another classic, “I’ve Got My Mojo Working,” gets treated to a totally funky workout and also features Smith delivering raspy vocals. DeFrancesco brings in tenor saxophone legend James Moody to blow with the elder statesmen on the swinging “Jones’n for Elvin,” and puts the Antonio Carlos Jobim bossa-tinted gem, “Corcovado (Quiet Nights),” into the mix. Of the latter, Francesco says, “I heard Jimmy play this live, but he’d never recorded it in the studio.”

There were plenty of unplanned sparks in the sessions also. Smith yelled out tunes he wanted to play, including a short, festive take on Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas;”a romp through his own “Dot Com Blues;” and, an on-the-spot blues improvisation, “Blues for Bobby C.,” which features tasty B-3 conversings.

Legacy concludes with Smith’s hit “Midnight Special,” a soulful double Hammond jaunt that features Bollenback taking a midtempo blues guitar ride. Smith also gets his gurgling B-3 voice into the proceedings and at the close breaks into a comic scat that ends with an ‘Amen.’”

Loose and relaxed. Sizzling and funky. Passionate and playful. Legacy lives up to
its name. The master leads the way for the pupil, then the two join together to
celebrate as peers. The CD is a special collection of two Hammond B-3 greats having a good time, documenting themselves in the studio playing side by side for the first time. As album liner note writer Pete Fallico points out: “With this recording Joey has not only kept the fire of jazz organ burning, but also solidified the legacy of this musical art form, embracing the truth (Jimmy Smith) and personally embellishing upon it with his own distinct voice, character and musical genius.”

Website: http://www.joeydefrancesco.com/