The Pace Report: "Joey In KeyB" The Joey DeFrancesco Interview wsg Frank Wess

Organist Joey DeFrancesco has been blessed to work with and learn from the great masters like the late Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Smith, Charles Earland, and Miles Davis. It is in his blood to keep the legacy alive in jazz and carry out the B-3 to new audiences. Even with helping create technology that keeps the younger generation in tune and interested in playing a scaled down version of the B-3. Joey was born in Niagara Falls, New York but was raised in Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly love has a connection with the Hammond B-3 Organ and history of notable jazz organists that made the instrument a mainstay in jazz music. The 40 year old B-3 master talks about his new venture in music, The KeyB, the new keyboard he has invested and endorses, that sounds just like the Hammond B-3. He began playing the organ at 6 and was getting schooled with the likes of Charles Earland, Trudy Pitts, and Jimmy McGriff. At 16 he was the first recipient of Philadelphia's Jazz Society McCoy Tyner Scholarship and finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. It was a chance meeting with Miles Davis on a local TV show in Philly that impressed him enough and invited him to tour with him after finishing high school. DeFrancisco has been blessed to tour and record with some of the legends and has learned a great deal from them. His latest disc, "Never Can Say Goodbye: A Tribute to Michael Jackson," on HighNote Records was a fun record and allowed him to record a musical hero he grew up listening to as a child. For him to record a jazz album of Jackson's standards is both a bold and courageous step in him playing popular modern music. It's a fresh and new way of departing from playing the dry standards that most musicians have played for the last 100 years. Look for the KeyB Keyboard at any music store and his latest disc "Never Can Say Goodbye" on HighNote Records.

Added 22 Jun 2026