Growing up in Philadelphia, organist Joey DeFrancesco sat in with Hank Mobley when he was 10. Word spread. He joined Miles Davis’s band at age 17, went on to perform with John McLaughlin, Ray Charles, Elvin Jones and many others. A protégé and friend of the late Jimmy Smith, he has been at the top of the B-3 crop for 20-plus years, and now is the model for a new generation of players.
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Joey DeFrancesco on TKA
Béla Fleck, the Paganini of the banjo, and Del McCoury, a living legend among bluegrass players, gave Meijer Gardens audiences an evening of exciting music, coupled with dry wit from Fleck and his wife Abigail Washburn, and aw’ shucks charm from the irrepressible McCoury.
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Béla Fleck on TKA
Del McCoury on TKA
Ann Hampton Callaway will be celebrating the music of a living legend—and her personal musical heroine—Barbra Streisand. Callaway will be performing many of her idol’s signature classics, delivered, of course, with Callaway’s own unique, personal style. Michael L. Quintos for BROADWAY WORLD
Photo by David Grunfeld, Nola.com |The Times-Picayune
Alison Fensterstock for NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune
New Orleans brass bands to emerge on the scene after the Dirty Dozen established its seminal, hybrid funk-jazz-R&B sound in the late 1970s are all technically – and most often, audibly, too – of the hip-hop generation. The consistently creative Soul Rebels, who have proven themselves to be up for almost anything via onstage collaborations with acts like Metallica, Green Day and Eurythmics’ Dave Stewart, plus a collaborative cover of Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” alongside Big Freedia, are among those who have dived in deepest.
Their 2013 “Power = Power” mixtape took on contemporary hits by the likes of Drake, Jay Z, Nicki Minaj and Kanye West. Earlier this year, the crafty crew played a three-night stand at New York City’s Brooklyn Bowl, sharing the stage with guest like Rakim, Pharoahe Monch, Black Thought and founding father Afrika Bambataa, as well as a tribute to D’Angelo and Marvin Gaye performed with special guest Roy Hargrove. (Video below, via Okayplayer.) Last summer, also at Brooklyn Bowl, they backed the critically acclaimed New York rapper Joey Bada$$.
This summer, the Soul Rebels are back at it: on June 26 they’ll host the midnight “Rebel Jam” at New York’s Blue Note club, featuring Rakim, Essence Festival performer Slick Rick, Mobb Deep’s Prodigy, Styles P and Sheek Louch of the Lox and jamband stalwart Eric Krasno, plus more surprise guests.
Like a lot of New Orleans musicians, the Soul Rebels are on the road in cooler climes for most of this summer. (An Essence reunion with Slick Rick isn’t in the cards; they’ll be in Istanbul, then on their way to the prestigious North Sea Jazz Festival.)
Soul Rebels trumpeter (and NOCCA grad) Julian Gosin joined us recently at a record store to talk about his influences, which ranged from Nas to Hall and Oates to Clark Terry.