7. Joey DeFrancesco: Live at the 5 Spot (Columbia, 1993)
Jazz organ lay dormant for much of the ’70s and ’80s, a relic that even old hands like Jimmy Smith and Shirley Scott found it hard to make a living with. Unquestionably, though, the man who brought it back was Joey DeFrancesco. “Man” here is a relative term; DeFrancesco was 22 years old when he recorded Live at the 5 Spot, and by then he’d been a professional musician for six years and a recording artist for four. (At 19, DeFrancesco had played keys on Miles Davis’ Amandla.) His revival of the organ tradition infused it with a mellow glow, perfect for accompanying soul-sax stars like Illinois Jacquet, Grover Washington, Jr., and Houston Person, all of whom guest here. Not to be neglected, though, is the swinging work of DeFrancesco’s trio, with guitarist Paul Bollenback and drummer Byron Landham, who do much of the heavy lifting on “I’ll Remember April” and “All of Me.”
