Joey DeFrancesco, soulful keyboard prodigy and five-time Grammy-nominated jazz organist, has died at 51

Joey DeFrancesco, 51, formerly of Springfield, Delaware County, a soulful keyboard prodigy who kindled the jazz renaissance of the Hammond B-3 organ in the 1990s, five-time Grammy Award nominee, and skilled pianist, trumpeter, tenor saxophonist, and vocalist, died Thursday, Aug. 25, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The cause of death was not announced by his family.

Known in Philadelphia as one of the greatest young musicians to emerge from the High School for Creative and Performing Arts in the late 1980s, Mr. DeFrancesco was lauded by critics and fans for more than 40 years for his “brain-bending licks,” “combustible presence” and the “electrifying experience” of his concerts. He recorded more than 30 jazz albums of his own and played with music greats Miles Davis, David Sanborn, Christian McBride, Houston Person, John McLaughlin, Ray Charles, Van Morrison, Diana Krall, Nancy Wilson, George Benson, and countless others.

The son of Philadelphia jazz organist Papa John DeFrancesco, younger brother of noted blues guitarist John DeFrancesco, and grandson of big band saxophone player Joseph DeFrancesco, Mr. DeFrancesco first played his father’s Hammond organ at 4. He composed his first song at 7, made his professional music debut at 10, and released his first album, All of Me, at 17.

“Every time I see him play, I cry,” Papa John DeFrancesco told The Inquirer in 2001.

Mr. DeFrancesco spent part of his senior year in high school touring Europe with Davis, was a sideman on several of the famous trumpeter’s subsequent albums, and told reporters in 1989: “I want to become a jazz figure, a name everyone knows. … I want to become a Miles Davis.” On his latest album, More Music, released in September 2021, Mr. DeFrancesco features 10 original songs and plays the organ, keyboard, piano, trumpet, and tenor saxophone.

In an online tribute, McBride, a Philadelphia-born bassist, eight-time Grammy Award winner, and high school classmate, called Mr. DeFrancesco “hands down the most creative and influential organist since [Norristown native] Jimmy Smith. He truly set a new bar, and his legacy will live on as such.” Denny Stilwell, president of Mr. DeFrancesco’s record label, Mack Avenue Music Group, said in a tribute: “He was one of a kind, in a class by himself, and the sweetest man on the planet.”

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Mr. DeFrancesco was a dynamic performer as well as a technical wizard. In a 2003 review of the album Falling in Love Again, Karl Stark of The Inquirer wrote: “DeFrancesco is the molten core of this set, wielding the new Hammond B-3 organ as if he were operating from the bridge of the Starship Enterprise.” Don Lucoff, president of DL Media Music, said: “His performances were heartfelt, exuberant, and soulful. Joey was transcended by his instruments.”

One London publication described a performance like this: “Spanning a smile as wide as the Brooklyn Bridge, Joey settled himself then proceeded to whip up enough steam in that Hammond B-3 to cause the entire overhead lighting and sound system to short out.”

He was inducted into the inaugural Hammond organ hall of fame in 2014 and the Philadelphia Music Alliance’s walk of fame in 2016. He won awards from the Jazz Journalists Association and other organizations, earned a top spot on the DownBeat magazine critics poll 12 times in the last 15 years, and won the readers poll as best organist every year since 2005.

He won the Philadelphia Jazz Society’s McCoy Tyner Scholarship when he was 16 and placed fourth in the 1987 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. “I really love the organ,” he told the Daily News in 1989. “I don’t like to say it’s my main ax, but it really is.”

Born April 10, 1971, Mr. DeFrancesco grew up in Delaware County, enrolled at the Settlement Music School when he was 10, built his own electronic organ at 13, and studied classical music for several years. Melodies simply popped into his mind when he was young, he told reporters, and he scribbled them down on scraps of paper and matchbook covers.

He told the Daily News in 1989 that his parents continually had to make him stop practicing and that he first encountered the organ when his father brought one home after a tour. “The next day, he came home from work and found me playing the blues on it,” Mr. DeFrancesco said.

He quickly separated himself from other ascending musicians, and the New York Daily News wrote in 1991 that Mr. DeFrancesco “clearly has the potential to change the face of the jazz organ.” Johanna Rauscher, a classical piano teacher at Settlement, told the Daily News in 1986: “He’s one in a million. … Someday, we’ll probably be talking about the Joey DeFrancesco era of music.”

He is “universally acknowledged as the greatest Hammond B-3 player on the planet,” Inquirer music reporter Dan DeLuca said.

» READ MORE: Philly great Joey DeFrancesco returns to the Clef Club to play a hallowed instrument in 2014

He moved to Arizona after high school, was married twice, and could do killer impressions of Tony Bennett and other celebrities. He liked to make selfie videos from the road, hosted “Organized,” a weekly program on Sirius XM Radio’s Real Jazz channel, and played Frank D and was music producer and co-executive producer for the 2009 musical comedy Moonlight Serenade.

“More music is what’s needed to create positivity and wellness for everybody, regardless of what’s happening in the world,” Mr. DeFrancesco recently told his friends at Mack Avenue Music. “Music just solves a lot of problems. So more live music, more original music, just more music. Without that, we’re in big trouble.”

In addition to his father and brother, Mr. DeFrancesco’s family lists his survivors as his wife Gloria, daughter Ashley, son Donny, mother Laurene, sister Cheryle, and other relatives.

Services are to be held later.