Joey Defrancesco is an B3 player of stature in more ways than one. As he slowly ambles on to the Ronnie Scott’s stage one is immediately taken aback by the sheer physicality of his presence. He is a commanding figure once seated at his keyboard, and is swift to demonstrate his mastery of the instrument. Playing in an unusual trio format of organ, piano (Massimo Farao, rather inexplicably wearing a Charles Mansion t-shirt) and drums (the intriguingly named Byron ‘Wookie’ Landham), Defranceso promptly breathed new life into an opening salvo of light-jazz standards ‘Bye, Bye Blackbird’ and ‘Fly me to the Moon’, tunes which most credible twenty-first century jazz acts would wilfully avoid, yet the depth of his imaginative improvisational skills renders them fresh.
If there was a theme to this evening’s performance it was fun, as the two keyboard players traded riffs, attempting to confuse Landham by creating inadvertent off-beat pauses, and laughing heartily at each other when the other pulled off a sublime flashy run or solo. When a young Italian vocalist joined them to croon for a number in the second set, the pair of them swapped knowing winks as each attempted to insert the most obvious clichéd motif they could find while their singer (jazz hands, emotional shoulders) seemed oblivious to their high-jinks. Ultimately though it was Defrancesco’s outrageous right hand, running across the B3’s top manual like a bewildered spider on amphetamines, that made the evening a triumph. If only Jess Yates was alive to see this, ‘Stars on Sunday’ could have been a whole different program.