Jazz Beat #22 - Joey DeFrancesco

Joey DeFrancesco plays the Springfield Jazz and Roots Festival on Saturday, August 6th. Joey was still in his teens when he was hailed as a Young Lion and keyboard phenom who helped revive the Hammond organ’s prominence in jazz in the late 1980s. He was renowned around Philadelphia when Miles Davis heard him on a Philly TV show in 1987, and the following year Davis featured the 17-year-old on a five-week tour of Europe. (See Joey D performing “Tu Tu” with Miles on the NEPR Jazz Blog: Miles Davis and the Young Philadelphians. ) Tom and Joey D touch on his work with Miles, his thoughtful reflections on the Miles Davis biopic “Miles Ahead,” the legacy of the Hammond B3 in his hometown, the foundational role of bebop in modern music, and spirituality in jazz.