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Joey DeFrancecso - Joey D!


Album focus

Dr. Lonnie Smith quote
I really was thinking Jimmy Smith but it just always came out different


Eddy Louiss

Dr. Lonnie Smith quote
I really was thinking Jimmy Smith but it just always came out different


Lils Mackintosh

Dr. Lonnie Smith quote
I really was thinking Jimmy Smith but it just always came out different


Darren Heinrich


Bruno Erminero Trio - Listen To My Soul


Joey & Pappa John DeFrancesco - All In The Family


Pete Levin - Deacon Blues


Bob DeVos - Playing For Keeps


Advanced Warning - Hifi Apartment

Jazz in SF

End of september 2008 I happened to be in San Francisco, CA for the Oracle Open World conference. Apart from picking up quite some knowledge about the latest database technology I also had some nice jazz experiences in the week the conference lasted.

On Monday night I took the ferry to cross the Bay to Oakland and went to see Barbara Dennerlein playing together with drummer Paul van Wageningen and the marvelous guitar player Brian Pardo. The band was going to be introduced by Pete Fallico - the #1 Hammond Jazz ambassador - and they all made me feel very welcome by sharing sushi with me in a small cozy living room backstage at Yoshi's jazz club. No, I don't take pictures of my encounters with people who are important in the Hammond Jazz sphere. I keep the memories for myself or write little stories, like this one, about those occasions.

For me this was a special night for several reasons. Watching Barbara Dennerlein perform is a treat. I personally think she's live at stage factors better then recorded. Having a chance to chat with her was special. She's a very friendly person. Talking about chatting, Paul van Wageningen appeared to be Dutch so I could speak with him in my native language and funny enough while talking, we discovered mutual acquaintances in the Netherlands. It's a small world.

Yoshi's in Oakland is already an almost historical place already. It is also the spot where Joey DeFrancesco and Jimmy Smith would play for five days, 16 to 20 februari 2005, after the release of their album "Legacy". Just a week before the gigs Jimmy Smith died. Joey DeFrancesco, who had been a Jimmy Smith protégé for a long time, turned the concert into a Tribute To, complete with Jimmy Smiths' B3 idling on stage, waiting for the master in vain.

After Barbara and her trio finished playing, Nick Peck, who I had met in cyberspace before, came up and introduced himself to me. He gave me his CD Fire Trucks I Have Known as a present. We had a conversation and a stroll outside - so I could smoke - and he later drove me back to my hotel in down town San Francisco. I was at the other side of the world but felt quite at home that night.

A few days later when I left a Thai restaurant on the crossing of Grant Ave. and Green Street I ran into the street signs on the left picture below. Hammond Jazz lovers will recognize this as a historical spot also.

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