Home For The Holidays (Alma Records)
Joey DeFrancesco
Released in 2014
DownBeat Four-Stars Review
YouTube:
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About:
The Hammond organ may just be the musical instrument best suited to Christmas and holiday themed music. It produces a gloriously warm, rich and full-bodied sound, the aural equivalent of a hug from Santa Claus. Place that instrument in the hands of a genuine virtuoso along with a carefully chosen selection of favorite holiday songs and Christmas carols and you have the recipe for an instant classic of a Christmas album.
That is precisely what Joey DeFrancesco has produced with Home for the Holidays. To be released on JD Music on October 28, it is actually Joey’s first holiday album. That’s a mite surprising, given that the legendary award-winning (and twice Grammynominated) jazz organist and bandleader (and former bandmate of such jazz greats as Miles Davis, John McLaughlin and George Benson) has been putting out records under his own name since 1989 and has more than 30 albums on his highly formidable discography. He credits his wife with providing the impetus to finally make a Christmas record. “This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, but Gloria, who is now my business manager too, really got it going, making all the plans,” DeFrancesco explains. “It was the first time I’d ever done my own release, as I’d always recorded for labels before.” The album, jointly produced by Joey and Gloria DeFrancesco, comes out on their new imprint, JD Music, with international distribution via the prestigious ALMA Records label, headed by DeFrancesco’s friend and creative collaborator Peter Cardinali.
Home for the Holidays is actually a double album, a treasure trove of some 23 tunes. Disc One (entitled The Party) features many of the most popular Christmas and holiday songs ever recorded. “This has the typical Christmas party songs,” says Joey, and the list includes such favorites as “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer,” “Merry Christmas Baby,” “Home for the Holidays,” “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” and “Blue Christmas.” Fitting snugly alongside these tunes are two superb new original DeFrancesco compositions, the title track, “Home for the Holidays,” and “Christmas at 3 a.m.”
DeFrancesco calls Disc Two (The Tradition) “the more traditional liturgical side of Christmas music.” Here, he reprises such beloved hymns and carols as “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “The First Noel,” and “Silent Night,” while infusing them with his distinctive musical dynamism.
Complementing this rich range of material are the diverse musical settings Joey employs on the record. On various tracks he performs solo, with his Trio, Quartet, and Quintet, all in different configurations. His core Trio comprises guitarist Jeff Parker, drummer George Fludas and Joey on Hammond organ, with guest musicians in other configurations including John Webber on bass, Jerry Weldon and jazz legend George Coleman Sr. (soon to be named an NEA Jazz Master) on tenor saxophones, and George Coleman Jr. on drums. The two songs recorded in California, “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” feature Roman Banda (drums). Jose ‘Papo’ Rodriguez (percussion), Steve Wilkerson (flute), and Tony Banda (bass). Famed for his skills as a multiinstrumentalist, DeFrancesco also plays piano and trumpet, and he showcases his resonant voice by singing on two bluesy numbers, “Blue Christmas” and “Merry Christmas Baby.”
All but two of the songs were recorded live off the floor at the Tom Tedesco Studio in Paramus, New Jersey, in January 2014. “I wanted to do it then, right after the holidays when it was still freezing,” says Joey. He laughingly recalls that to recreate the Christmas vibe on the two selections he’d recorded the previous August in California, at Anaheim’s Love and Laughter Recording Studio, “We turned the AC in the studio up high to make it real cold! Still, it doesn’t take much to get Joey DeFrancesco into the musical spirit of the holiday season. “I never get tired of Christmas music. I could play it all year long but people might think I’m a little crazy!,” he declares. That love of seasonal music came early, for Joey grew up in Philadelphia in a very musical family. His grandfather Joseph DeFrancesco played reeds, and his father “Papa” John DeFrancesco is a fine jazz organist himself. “On Christmas Eve, we’d always have a big party at the house and lots of musicians would come by,” Joey recalls. “We’d always have a great jam session, so this project is a very natural thing for me.”
On Home for the Holidays, Joey and his comrades bring fresh life to these Christmas favorites, while respecting the core melodies that have made them so popular. “The thing about a jazz Christmas album is that you play the melodies pretty much intact,” he explains. “I stuck to the harmonic element of the melodies, but then you go into the improvisation on the solos. That is when we take our liberties.” A fine example of DeFrancesco’s refreshing approach to the material is his transformation of “Blue Christmas,” the closing song on The Party. The potent combination of fluent piano and guitar, resonant tenor saxophone and Joey’s virile vocals chase away the melancholy of the lyrics, turning the tune into a vibrant and upbeat delight. His sensitive and serious side is revealed on The Tradition, with his tasteful and moving solo organ renditions of “O Come All Ye Faithful,” “Away In A Manger,” and “O Holy Night.” DeFrancesco grew up listening to such ‘60s-era Hammond organ-based Christmas albums as Jimmy Smith’s Christmas Cookin’, Don Patterson’s Holiday Soul and Jimmy McGriff’s Christmas With Jimmy McGriff. He has done his influences proud by coming up with a thrilling new Christmas classic, one similarly destined to stand the test of time. This is an album you definitely must take Home for the Holidays.
Track Listing:
Disc 1 – The Party
1. Mistletoe And Holly (Hank Sanicola / Frank Sinatra / Dok Stanford) 03:04
2. Home For The Holidays (Joey DeFrancesco) 04:39
3. Baby It’s Cold Outside (Frank Loesser) 04:05
4. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Ralph Blane / Hugh Martin) 04:26
5. The Twelve Days Of Christmas 06:45
6. What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? (Frank Loesser) 04:18
7. Christmas At 3 A.M. (Joey DeFrancesco) 04:47
8. Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer (Johnny Marks) 04:49
9. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town (J. Fred Coots / Haven Gillespie) 03:38
10. The Christmas Song (Mel Tormé / Robert Wells) 05:17
11. Merry Christmas Baby (Lou Baxter / Johnny Moore) 04:23
12. I’ll Be Home For Christmas (Kim Gannon / Walter Kent / Buck Ram) 04:54
13. Blue Christmas (Billy Hayes / Jay W. Johnson) 04:29
Disc 2 – The Tradition
1. Joy To The World 02:23
2. O Little Town Of Bethlehem 04:12
3. It Came Upon A Midnight Clear 04:03
4. We Three Kings 04:49
5. O Come All Ye Faithful 02:47
6. Silent Night 05:14
7. What Child Is This 05:26
8. Away In A Manger 03:18
9. The First Noel 04:01
10. O Holy Night 04:06
Personnel:
Disc 1
Joey DeFrancesco: organ, trumpet, vocals
Jeff Parker: guitar
George Fludas: drums
George Coleman, Jr.: drums (6, 10)
Ramon Danda (5, 12)
John Webber: bass (4, 13)
Tony Banda: bass (5, 12)
Jose Rodriguez: percussion (5, 12)
Steve Wilke3rson: flute (5)
George Coleman, Sr.: tenor saxophone (6, 10)
Jerry Weldon: tenor saxophone (1, 13)
Disc 2
Joey DeFrancesco: organ, trumpet
George Fludas: drums
John Webber: bass (6)
Jerry Weldon: tenor saxophone (6)
Recorded at Love & Laughter Recording Studio, Anaheim, CA; The Drive Shed Recording Studios, Toronto, ON; Tom Tedesco Studio, Paramus, NJ
Enginners: John “Bettle” Bailey, Orlando Torres, Tom Tedesco
Mixing: John “Bettle” Bailey
Assistants: Taylor Kernohan, Fabian Rubio
Photography: Tracy Ketcher
Artwork: Marianna Van De Leygraaf
Review:
Debuting on Santa’s music scene, Joey DeFrancesco celebrates in grand style with Home For The Holidays – 23 selections on two discs. The first is lighthearted (“The Party”) as he uses his outstanding gifts as an organist (and occasional trumpeter and pianist) on freshly arranged perennials plus two enjoyable originals: the title track and “Christmas At 3 a.m.” He shows a predilection for blues feeling in his playing and his two stabs at singing. Among his like-minded revelers is the honorable saxophone elder George Coleman. The second disc (“The Tradition”) has him turning his attention to 10 famous carols, picking right up on the special singularities of the season. He develops his ideas with vitality and consistency, in a combo or solo three times.
Frank-John Hadley (DownBeat)
