JAZZ REVIEW : De Francesco Turns Back Clock on a Genre

Back in the 1950s and ‘60s, a form of jazz flourished in which the dominant figure played Hammond organ, the prevailing mood was the blues, and the sidemen were a saxophonist, a guitarist and a drummer. With the arrival of Joey de Francesco, who opened Tuesday at Hollywood’s Catalina Bar and Grill, the clock has turned back and this engaging soul-jazz genre is with us again.

This is a surprising development in two ways: first, the organ has been in a decline for years, with the synthesizer more or less taking its place, and second, De Francesco is much too young to remember anything about the idiom. He was born April 10, 1971.

From the first 12 bars of the opening tune--a blues, of course--it was evident that De Francesco has studied and mastered this idiom to an improbable degree. Here is a throwback to Jimmy Smith and all those others who set the pattern two decades before he was born.

Like all the great organists, this precocious teen-ager not only possesses a fast mind, limning long, captivating blues lines, but also a busy foot that plays the bass parts on the chromatic pedals. Any organist worth his salt in this field scorned the use of a bass player.

De Francesco is also a master of dynamic contrast. Some tunes would build up to a triple forte, sink back to a barely audible triple-piano, then back again, like a sonic roller coaster. At one point he established a laid-back beat reminiscent of Errol Garner.

His sidemen (Glenn Guidone on tenor and soprano saxes, Jim Henry on trumpet and fluegelhorn, Paul Bollenbak on guitar, Byron Landham on drums) are all older men--that is to say, men probably over 20--who have developed styles ideally suited to the leader’s requirements. Henry was particularly effective on “Round Midnight” and a somewhat overbusy but commendably adventurous “My Romance.”

These Young Turks move back through the decades with grace and conviction--old blues like “Red Top” and old pop songs like “It Had To Be You” seemed to be second nature to them. This is an example of youthful maturity, as impressive on its own level as Wynton Marsalis’ explosion on the jazz scene a decade ago. The quintet closes Sunday.