Papa John DeFrancesco, the father of organist
Joey DeFrancesco, is a fine organist himself. The weakness to his otherwise enjoyable set is that the tunes (with the exception of the pop song "You Are So Beautiful") are all either blues or near-blues, generally taken at similar tempos. The sameness to the individual tunes is unfortunate (better planning should have gone into the date), but the playing is first-rate throughout. In addition to
DeFrancesco, the large-toned tenor saxophonist
Jacques Johnson is a major asset and John DeFrancesco Jr. is a fine guitarist. The music is solid soul-jazz with appealing grooves, but it is a pity that most of the songs do not stand out by themselves. ~ Scott Yanow