In the Key of the Universe (Mack Avenue)
Joey DeFrancesco
Released March 1, 2019
Grammy Nominee for Best Jazz Instrumental Album 2020
AllMusic Favorite Jazz Albums 2019
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nG5Ne4jKz86k2L8TIL-1sCDwsz6DXtVSE
Spotify:
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About:
Joey DeFrancesco has stretched himself regularly throughout the course of thirty-plus albums. Just since Project Freedom(Mack Avenue, 2017) he’s collaborated very productively for two albums with the Irish soulman Van Morrison—You’re Driving Me Crazy (Sony Legacy, 2018) and The Prophet Speaks(Caroline, 2018). And, on In The Key of the Universe, the organist/trumpeter reaffirms his connection with jazz history through fruitful work with estimable musicians including saxophonist Pharoah Sanders and drummer Billy Hart.
DeFrancesco himself sounds effortless as he applies a light touch in play on “Inner Being,” but that approach extends to the collective, incorporating the solid rhythmic presence of percussionist Sammy Figueroa. “Vibrations in Blue” is suitably atmospheric, but the ensemble swings nonetheless: on this record, metaphysics are no less important than the earthy side of life. Accordingly, the droning of sitar for the intro and outro of that latter cut resides right next to the high-stepping excursion that is “Awake and Blissed; ” as with its surrounding tracks, the musicians are so fully engaged the visceral impact of this music equals the cerebral.
“It Swung Wide Open” continues at a similarly fast pace before DeFrancesco and company, including Troy Roberts, the saxophonist for his own band, embark upon deeply spiritual excursions at the heart of this album. For the title song and “The Creator Has A Master Plan”—on the original thirty-two plus minutes of which Hart accompanied Sanders—the instrumental excursions are curtailed somewhat), but the playing time most certainly does not belie the depth of passion.
A comparably novel effect arises from DeFrancesco’s trumpet playing on yet another aptly-named title here, “A Path Through the Noise,” where his horn lines dances around the subtle beats of Figueroa. Likewise, Roberts cements the emotive power of his own playing when he appears so prominently in sequence, on the ever-so-lush “And So It Is” and “Soul Perspective,” hardly residing in the shadow of his iconic counterpart, he simultaneously broadens the scope of In The Key of the Universe, deepens its accessible quality and reaffirms this record’s continuity with Joey DeFrancesco’s body of work at large.
Track Listing:
1. Inner Being (Joey DeFrancesco) 05:18
2. Vibrations in Blue (Joey DeFrancesco) 06:42
3. Awake and Blissed (Joey DeFrancesco) 03:01
4. It Swung Wide Open (Joey DeFrancesco) 03:54
5. In the Key of the Universe (Joey DeFrancesco) 05:05
6. The Creator Has a Master Plan (Pharoah Sanders / Leon Thomas) 11:00
7. And So It Is (Joey DeFrancesco) 07:52
8. Soul Perspective (Joey DeFrancesco) 05:30
9. A Path Through the Noise (Joey DeFrancesco) 04:47
10. Easier to Be (Joey DeFrancesco) 05:15
Personnel:
Joey DeFrancesco: organ, keyboards, trumpet (7, 9, 10)
Pharoah Sanders: tenor saxophone (5, 6, 7), vocals (6)
Troy Roberts: soprano (1, 8), alto (2) and tenor saxophone (4, 5, 8, 9, 10), acoustic bass (6, 7)
Sammy Figueroa: percussion Billy Hart: drums
Recorded at Tempest Recording
Producers: Joey DeFrancesco and Gloria DeFrancesco
Recorded and Mixed by Clarke Rigsby
Mastered by Nathan James
Photography: Michael Woodall
Cover: Daniel B. Holeman
Design: Raj Naik
Executive-Producer: Gretchen Valade
Review:
Following up his 2018 collaboration with Van Morrison, You’re Driving Me Crazy, Joey DeFrancesco returns to his own work with his quartet on 2019’s spiritually inspired In the Key of the Universe. Produced by DeFrancesco and his wife, Gloria, the album finds the organist tapping into the hypnotic, deeply soulful metaphysical jazz that artists like Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk further explored in the wake of spiritual jazz pioneer John Coltrane’s death in 1967. In fact, DeFrancesco showcases Sanders here on three tracks. Joining them are several longtime associates including legendary drummer Billy Hart, saxophonist Troy Roberts, and percussionist Sammy Figueroa. At the core of the album is a heartfelt rendition of Sanders’ “The Creator Has a Master Plan” off his classic 1969 album Karma, on which drummer Hart also appeared. Sanders also adds his flowing, emotive saxophone to the expansive, minor-toned title track, and the dusky afterglow grooves of “And So It Is.” The latter also finds DeFrancesco playing trumpet, something he does several times on the album, evoking the burnished warmth and lyricism of mid-’60s Miles Davis. The tracks without Sanders are equally compelling, as DeFrancesco and his band dig into Middle Eastern-tinged blues on “Vibrations in Blue,” dive deep into the flowing bop modality of “Awake and Blissed,” and luxuriate in the sparkling soul balladry of “A Path Through the Noise.” While DeFrancesco has always played with an earthy soulfulness, on In the Key of the Universe he elevates that soulfulness to a divine musical plane.
Matt Collar (AllMusic)
