The immense musicality of the late Joey DeFrancesco lives on not just in his recordings, but in our hearts.
One person for whom that is especially true is Robi Botos. The two keyboardists became good friends many years ago, bonding not only over their shared love of music and their simpatico musicianship but also as people, thanks in large part to the welcoming, generous nature of DeFrancesco, who was once an idol to a young Botos.
On Wednesday, Jan. 17, Botos and a cast of top-flight Toronto jazz musicians will pay tribute to DeFrancesco in a Sound of Jazz concert at Lula Lounge to honour the late, great multi-instrumentalist, who died last year at 51.
Ahead of the show, Botos joined us to talk about the legacy of Joey DeFrancesco.
I want to ask you a question from a player’s perspective. Joey DeFrancesco is known for playing the Hammond B3. If you’re a piano player, can you immediately play those other instruments?
No, you cannot. It has been on my mind, because obviously when you pay tribute to somebody [like that], it crosses your mind to do it on the organ. I do record on organ and I do play the organ, but when it comes to Joey DeFrancesco, there’s no replacement there.
I’d say he’s arguably the greatest organ player of all time, but that’s limiting, too, because he was such a 360-degree musician.
I’ve seen him play piano and Rhodes on a session where he ended up switching, which was terrifying for me. And he played the trumpet and the sax, and he sang beautifully. It’s insane, the amount of talent. And he played drums, which I forgot.
Do you remember the first time he came into your world?
It was through mutual friends in a session that we were both called for by Peter Cardinali. We had mutual friends, and he also recorded on a Vito Rezza album that I was a part of, so I got a couple of early chances to meet him. Right away, we really connected. It took us two minutes to become friends. We did many performances and hung out. We never saw each other enough.
I always hear the legendary story of him playing with Miles Davis when he was a teenager. Before you got a chance to get in a room and work with him, were those kinds of stories in your world about this young gun, Joey DeFrancesco?
Oh, man. I watched a VHS of Miles and Joey. I was younger than Joey, and he was basically the coolest kid in the world at that point — playing keytar and synths with Miles Davis. So, I was aware.
Why did you and Joey connect so quickly?
He definitely wasn’t as aware of who I am, other than probably some people saying stuff and maybe checking out some of the stuff I’d done. But even before the music, he was an amazing guy to be around. Very welcoming. Not many legends will tell a 20-something to come and sit in on his gig. He just always took that extra step. He would randomly call me up and get me on gigs. He was very, very generous, and very cool.
There’s some footage of you at NAMM and then Joey comes along and you guys start burning it down, and a crowd comes to watch what’s going on.
That was a very spontaneous thing. Things weren’t even plugged in properly. The sound was weird. That was memorable. I remember the same night, it was already getting a bit “jazz viral,” if that’s a word.
Tell us about what’s going to happen at this Sound of Jazz tribute to Joey DeFrancesco.
There are a few people that got invited, and I think the list is still growing. Davide DiRenzo is playing drums, Marc Rogers on bass, Lorne Lofsky and Ted Quinlan are part of it, William Sperandei and John Johnson on horns. It’s going to be fun. We’re covering a combination of Joey’s tunes through different eras of his life.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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