Jazzin' It Up at Blues Alley

From left DeFrancesco, Cobb, and Coryell

If there were a king of the Hammond B-3 jazz organ players, you would have to give the crown to Jimmy Smith, who died in 2005. The legendary Smith, who claimed he tried to pattern his playing after the sounds of John Coltrane, has influenced virtually every organ player who came after him. In the 1960s, he joined with influential jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery, who died in 1968, to record a pair of jazz albums considered classics today.

Now Smith and Montgomery may be gone, but the sounds they fashioned live on, most currently in a collaboration between Hammond master Joey DeFrancesco, a friend and student of Smith, and noted contemporary jazz guitarist Larry Coryell.

In their current worldwide tour, DeFrancesco and Coryell are joined in their trio by 83-year-old Washington D.C. native Jimmy Cobb, who played drums on Miles Davis' Kind of Blue album, believed by most to be the quintessential jazz LP of all time.

The trio are billing their current tour as "A Tribute to Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery" and last night they played the 1st of 8 shows at the Blues Alley jazz and supper club in the Georgetown section of DC.

At the opening of the set, DeFrancesco told the crowd that the trio had just arrived back in the United States that day after playing a month of dates "all over Europe." But the trio showed little jag lag as they plunged into several songs off their latest CD including the title track "Wonderful, Wonderful," and "Five Spot After Dark," "Wagon Wheels," and "Joey D."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips

The New York Times calls Blues Alley, which opened in 1965, "the nation's finest jazz supper club." It is literally located in an alley. Inside, the club is dark with small tables crowded together to better create the ideal atmosphere for an intimate night of jazz. Well there was no question last night that the jazz fashioned by 3 masters of their instruments was impressive. But what about the food? Each of the items on the menu are named for a jazz great that has played the club. For example, there is the Les McCann pork chops or the Nancy Wilson barbeque chicken creole. For the record, I had Maynard Ferguson's shrimp and pepper pasta. It was very good, not as good as the jazz providing the background for dinner, but given the tasty sounds of the 3 musicians on stage it really wasn't a fair competition.