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| Photo courtesy of Janet Jardine |
For quite some time in the early 2000s I was an 'Orbit Room Girl'.
The Orbit Room is one of the very FEW places anywhere that has an original B3 Organ. Its a musicians bar. Only those serious about music, and fun, go to The Orbit, and only the best play there. I hung out at Orbit
A LOT. It was at The Orbit Room that I first saw
Joey DeFrancesco dazzle on the keys. The
LAST time I saw him, he was battling on the B3's with Brian Auger and his Bolivian Express at The Mod Club. That was
WAY back in 2005.
AWESOME night!!! Unfortunately, I just haven't been able to catch any of Joey's other gigs since then. Something I have always regretted. But then
JazzFM came along and convinced Joey D to perform alongside
The JazzFM Youth Big Band as part of the Sound Of Jazz Concert Series at The Old Mill. Well, actually, I doubt it took much convincing. Joey has always been incredible at encouraging the younger generations. Handsome Man had never seen Joey live so we grabbed tix right away. As usual we were Keeners, arriving second in line to only one couple. While waiting, Marty and the other new friends we made at the
Dick Hyman Sound of Jazz performance showed up, and wonderful music discussions unfolded. But in reality, we were all just chomping at the bit, waiting to get in to hear Joey. What we didn't expect, all of us that is except the first couple in line, was that Joey would be taking a back seat that night.
