Joey DeFrancesco trio comes back home to warm up Chris' Jazz Café

You could have seen a lot of shows all over Philly on Friday night, but you couldn't have heard better music - or had a better time - than at Chris' Jazz Café, when Joey DeFrancesco, one of the greatest organists in jazz, held forth with his trio.

"It's good to be back home," DeFrancesco said after the band's first number. Born in Springfield, Pa., and a product of the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, Joey D began with "Baby It's Cold Outside," an appropriate (it was good to be indoors, baby) and cunning tune that started low and opened up when the band was good and ready. Dan Wilson on guitar was tasteful and omnipotent, with a Charlie Christian-like tone but very much his own style, dealing wonders without thrusting himself too much forward, as guitarists can. And I want Jason Brown to drum for my band. Joey D clearly got off all night on Brown's eloquent, seismic work.

Joey D, prodigiously gifted, is given to slow builds, explosions, quizzical fiddlings, muttering comments, odd entries, and then blinding runs. He loves to play against the pulse: several tunes "got stuck" on breathless, often humorous polyrhythms.

What sets him apart - jazz has many inexpressive stars - is that Joey D is a showman, entertainer, and facial gymnast, reacting to Brown and Wilson with surprise and delight, as the happy, packed crowd did. He also has an element of the clown, as in "Sentimental Journey," in which the band showed what you can do with a tune of about six notes.

He's also a guy of many surprises. The trio, a year old, has a new album, Trip Mode, and the tracks sound really good. Wilson's composition "Who Shot John" was gnarly, blazing, and melodic. Another highlight was "The Touch of Your Lips," a ballad in which DeFrancesco revealed a lovely tenor - who knew he sang? - and then switched to trumpet, on which he's also accomplished. Beginning with a sly quote of Ravel's Bolero, he held back, waited for the moment (in a song about touches leading to a kiss), built tension and feeling. Crowd response was joyful and stunned.

Of course the set, first of two on the first night of two, was too short. For the encore, DeFrancesco recounted the magical moment he and a young Christian McBride were among high-schoolers brought on to Bill Boggs' Time Out to meet Miles Davis. Miles heard DeFrancesco, asked, "What's your organ player's name?," and eventually hired him, starting a long, blessed career. The band ended with "What's Your Organ Player's Name?," from the new album, a funky earworm with DeFrancesco taking up organ, vocals, and horn (doing a Miles impression with mute). Brown blasted a fine solo, and Wilson sprinted, jammed, and sang on guitar. Warm, engaging, it was one wow of a homecoming night.

jt@phillynews.com

215-854-4406 @jtimpane