Joey DeFrancesco Posthumous Album Live at Keystone Korner

 Mack Avenue Records announced Live at Keystone Korner, a posthumous album from legendary organist and multi-instrumentalist Joey DeFrancesco. Recorded just weeks before his untimely passing in August 2022 at age 51, the recording captures a virtuoso at the height of his ever-evolving innovation. The previously unreleased DeFrancesco composition “One More Blues (Live)” was released today ahead of the October 16 album release.

Listen to “One More Blues (Live)"

Preorder Live at Keystone Korner

Captured in Baltimore at the thriving club helmed by jazz impresario Todd Barkan, Live at Keystone Korner stands as some of the most compelling music DeFrancesco ever performed, a radiant showcase for the joyful ferocity that was his signature. That’s a remarkable achievement for the Philadelphia-rooted musician, who turned heads as a prodigy before becoming the definitive organist of his generation and collaborating with Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, Van Morrison, David Sanborn, and other icons. When he passed, his New York Times obituary dubbed him, without hyperbole, the “reigning king of the jazz organ,” an artist who brought the organ “back into vogue in jazz circles.”

Live at Keystone Korner presents one of the best and most ingenious bands of DeFrancesco’s career, an adaptable unit that empowered him to exhibit his stunning abilities as a multi-instrumentalist. In addition to organ, he impresses on keyboards, trumpet, and his late-blooming passion, the tenor saxophone. His essential foil in this pursuit is his fellow Philly guy Lucas Brown, an organist, guitarist and keyboardist whose soulful, understated style provides the perfect complement to DeFrancesco’s wildly entertaining mastery.

“He really enjoyed Lucas because he gave him the opportunity to switch up his instruments,” says his wife and manager, Gloria DeFrancesco, who produced Live at Keystone Korner. “Lucas gave him the support he needed.” Rounding out the trio is drummer Anwar Marshall, whose limber swing urges DeFrancesco to ever greater heights, chorus after chorus and tune after tune. “Anwar is amazing,” adds Gloria. “Joey knew from the get-go that Anwar is just going to fly.”

Ultimately, Live at Keystone Korner is a reminder of how Joey DeFrancesco spent a large part of his career making business-as-usual gigs something extraordinary. Another weekend night, another steamy club gig for jazz’s hardest-working organist — but the music, the clairvoyance of the band, and the warmth he brought to an audience were always unforgettable. In fact, during his lifetime, DeFrancesco toured so generously, and was so consistently brilliant, that it was easy to take him for granted. Live at Keystone Korner urges us to think about what we lost with his passing.

“He started so young,” says Gloria, “and he did so much in those years that he had. But there was so much more that he wanted to do. He definitely wasn’t ready to go. But he left us with this wonderful music, and that is absolutely a blessing.”

Tracklisting:

1. Awake and Blissed (Live)

2. Vibrations in Blue (Live)

3. Free (Live)

4. Lady G (Live)

5. In Times of Reflection (Live)

6. Inner Being (Live)

7. Roll With It (Live)

8. One More Blues (Live)