Categorizing Music - UGH!

by Bob Powers

G21 Music Writer

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Bob Powers

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Hey, hey, the news in music is all good this week. New albums by pianist Phil DeGreg and organist Joey DeFrancesco prove to be somewhere between refreshing and flat out wonderful. Can't ask more than that, can you?

It's a shame that the industry insists on pigeonholing its products. This album is called rock, although it may have more folk elements (I'm thinking of Tracy Chapman in particular). That album is displayed in the jazz bins, although Rosemary Clooney's singing should appeal to damned near everyone over the age of 30. Wonder how many sales are missed because an album is mislabeled as jazz instead of plain old popular music?

There's something about merchandising that insists everything be put into its own box, even if that box simply doesn't fit. Thus a new artist such a Joey DeFrancesco may never be heard by a significant part of his potential audience.

DeFrancesco currently has two albums in stores, both securely stuck in the jazz racks. Each CD deserves the widest possible availability, for this 29-year-old from Philadelphia has the chops to become a major, major star. With nimble fingers spinning like a buzz saw, DeFrancesco delivers thrills and chills with this release, "Incredible!" (Concord Records).

Seated behind a well-aged Hammond B-3 electric organ, its wooden parts scratched in testimony to its age (the company stopped making these marvelous instruments years ago), DeFrancesco plays a program of crowd pleasers, as the noise from last October's San Francisco Jazz Festival aptly attests. This show was staged at Bimbo's, a popular night spot in the coastal city. The fourth annual event was labeled the "B-3 Summit," since it featured the reigning king, Jimmy Smith, and his new crown prince, DeFrancesco.

In the best recorded live concert I've stumbled across in many moons, "Incredible!"offers a fulfilling taste of the best of both musicians. In 66 minutes of fiery music, DeFrancesco works with guitarist Paul Bollenback and drummer Byron Landham. They play in perfect strides together four gems, "The Champ," "When You're Smilin'," "The Good Life" and "Back Home in Indiana."

Jimmy Smith, considered the best jazz organist for decades, plays alongside DeFrancesco for the CDs final tracks, both medleys offering 26 minutes and 32 seconds of sensational sounds. Smith's regular sidemen, guitarist Phil Upchurch and drummer Frank Wilson play behind their boss in the easy style of musicians quite comfortable with each other.

Few albums would stand up to the title "Incredible!" This remarkable album justifies that appellation quite well.

The other CD, also from Concord, is called "The Jazz Times Superband." It offers more than 65 minutes of sharp, clean and invigorating jazz by DeFrancesco, tenor groove man Bob Berg, the veteran Randy Brecker on trumpet and flugelhorn, Dennis Chambers behind the drum kit, and Paul Bollenback on guitar. Its a salute to Jazz Times magazine, which is marking its 30th anniversary.

The album opens with Breckers "Dirty Dogs," a funky blues whizbang that starts the music on the right foot, offering each of the musicians plenty of room for soloing. The band moves along in a fresh, modern manner through a catalog of tunes that aren't on every third album in the jazz bins. DeFrancesco proves to be just as comfortable backing others as he does when it becomes solo time.

Brecker, who has played on some easily forgettable albums in that detestable "smooth jazz" category, demonstrates that his real jazz chops are in excellent condition. His tone is full, his sense of rhythm just doggone perfect.

Both these releases will spend lots of time on your CD turntable.

DeGreg Delightful

I have a question for Phil DeGreg, associate professor of Jazz Studies at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Why are you staying in Cincinnati?

This hugely talented jazz pianist proves again, this time on his third album for J Curve Records, that he doesn't need to take a back seat in the halls of jazz. Academic he may be, but this cat plays great jazz, seemingly effortlessly. Listening to "Whirl Away" shows again why DeGreg need not bow before any other jazz pianist in the land. He's absolutely worthy of the designation "master."

DeGreg has a fine quartet of backing musicians, including Don Braden on tenor and soprano saxes, the superb guitarist Randy Johnston, Bob Bodley on bass, and Steve Davis at the drums.

The album contains five DeGreg originals, which give him a chance to show off in several moods. A number of the songs feature DeGreg playing in unison with either Johnston or Braden. It's an old technique that deserves being revived. The sound is fresh as the band plays together as a seamless unit.

You should "Whirl Away" to your favorite record emporium to pick up a copy of an album which will keep entertaining you for a long time.

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