Tag Archives: Ronnie Scott's

AN INFERNO IN SOHO

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Composer-arranger-conductor and let us not forget trumpeter Guy Barker and myself have collaborated on several large scale jazz projects over the years. There was The Amadeus Project featuring dZf, a cheeky Runyonesque re-working of The Magic Flute, featuring actor Michael Brandon as the gravel-voiced narrator. For a Benjamin Britten festival at Aldeburgh we created That Obscure Hurt, a 90-minute piece for 75 musicians, with the great American singer Kurt Elling and actress Janie Dee. As a co-commission with the RTE (he is its Associate Artist) and the BBC Concert Orchestras, Guy created bravura new arrangements of Charles Mingus’s music to a text written by me and spoken/sung by Allan Harris.

But Inferno 67 is something else, as you can tell from this ad in the latest edition of Jazzwise:

My instruction from Guy was to imagine an episode of the Twilight Zone as if directed by David Lynch and scored by Quincy Jones, Miklos Rosza, Bernard Herrmann and Johnny Dankworth. And maybe the Beatles. And definitely Coltrane. That was before the pandemic. Since that enforced hiatus, it has grown in scope, introducing new characters, references and twists and is now blessed with one hell of a score. Luckily the powerhouse Guy Barker Big Band, its ranks filled with world-class soloists, can manage every switchback that its titular leader can throw at them.

So that just left the story element to deal with. For the narrator, Guy recruited the wonderful Clarke Peters (The Wire, Five Guys Named Moe, etc etc) and for lyrics, wit and devilish charm, the urbane Joe Stilgoe. The firebrand soul and funk come from the incomparable Vanessa Haynes; the shape-shifting love story is delivered by two of the UK’s top actors – Demetri Goritsas (whom I had seen in the fabulous “Jaws” play The Shark is Broken, as Roy Scheider) and Emer Kenny, who, among many other things, wrote the screenplay and co-starred in the series Karen Pirie, based on the novels by Val McDermid.

So, in all, that’s about 22 people on stage. It’s fair to say Ronnie Scott’s has rarely seen anything like it, but rest assured, the beating heart of this piece is the finest big band jazz in all it iterations. And a bottle of Green Spot whiskey. Oh, and a shrunken head. You’ll just have to go to find out why.

INFERNO 67 is at Ronnie Scott’s on Frith St in Soho from September 17th to 9th, two shows each night. Details: https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/find-a-show/guy-barker

TUNES IN THE KEY OF B3

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Since this article was published Joey has died, aged just 51, which was a terrible shock as a few weeks before we had hugged outside Ronnie Scott’s and he had thanked me for the piece. . There is a heartfelt appreciation: here: https://londonjazznews.com/2022/09/05/joey-defrancesco-1971-2022-a-tribute-by-pete-whittaker/

Joey DeFrancesco is very young to be a jazz legend. But legend he is. Mention the Hammond B3 organ to any jazz fan and three names will come up – Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy Smith, who put the sound at the centre of soul-jazz in the 50s and 60s, and Mr D. “Well,” Joey says from home in the US, “I started young, that’s why people think of me alongside Jimmy or Jack. But I’m only 51,” he mock protests.

More music from the master of the B3

Starting young is right. He was four when he started playing the organ, nine by the time he could reach the foot pedals, although he was already playing in clubs alongside his musician father. He was such a keyboard prodigy that by 17 he was in Miles Davis’ band. Like many people who heard that husky voice on the line summoning them to New York, he thought it was friends spoofing him. “I must have hung up on him four times.”

But eventually he went to that terrifying audition where Miles pointed to the piano and said: “Play something for me.” So he did and he was in the group (this being the late eighties Tutu era). I asked if Miles had given him any advice. “Yeah. I was playing a solo one night and he wondered over and said: ‘Leave some holes.'” Miles being the master of space in a solo.

Joey had to leave, though. “I had done my own record by then and Columbia wanted me to go on the road to promote it. Miles was mad at first, but he understood.”

That first album and his subsequent ones, plus a punishing touring schedule, meant that Joey brought the Hammond back front and centre after a few years in the jazz doldrums. “There were some people who thought I was the first to play it in jazz. It was Fats Waller back in the early 40s who was the first in with Jitterbug Waltz! But it was sort of phased out for a while. You had synthesizers, which are way more portable, then bands like Weather Report with a very different sound, which I love, and rock bands had gone towards the piano. But the Hammond was still there. All I did was remind people how great it sounds.”

On his latest album – his 39th – More Music, Joey demonstrates he is more than just a keyboard whizz. He also plays trumpet and sax. Well. “When I was with Miles I was playing trumpet in secret. He was Miles, you know? But I played him one of his lines one day and he said: You sound like me. Do it again. So, I did and he said:Iit was better the first time. But he was very encouraging. He gave me some of his mouthpieces and a couple of Harmon mutes. I still miss him, man. The best times were when we weren’t on stage, just hangin’ out.” The trumpet is a hard mistress, but seeing Joey playing Hammond with one hand and trumpet with the other a few years ago, I couldn’t help thinking – that’s almost Miles I’m hearing, jamming from the after-life.

Joey’s new band, which features a second keyboard player/guitarist, which frees him to take sax solos, that again are remarkably adept considering he has only been playing a few years, will be at Ronnie Scott’s in a few weeks. Don’t worry, his obvious affection for other instruments will not overshadow what he is best known for – expect plenty of funky, gospely, soulful and swinging organ. In others words, the classic, compelling sound of a B3 in full flight.

 Joey DeFrancesco played four shows at Ronnie Scott’s on 27th/28th July: see https://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/