One of the greats of the jazz world, Hammond organist and trumpeter Joey DeFrancesco, gone at only 51 years old.  A HUGE loss for the jazz world.  Above link is his full one hour thirty minute set with Van Morrison in 2017 at The San Francisco Jazz Center.  Joey really goes off in this, and Van proves that he can handle straight ahead jazz.  I highly recommend you tune into YouTube on your smart TV and turn this WAY up.  It is WELL worth any music freak's time!  Van's daughter Shawna Morisson is a guest vocalist for much of the second half of the show.

I feel fortunate that I got to hear DeFrancesco twice, the last one being by far the most memorable:  A Tribute to Miles Davis at Yoshi's in Oakland, must have been 2015.  The band included Larry Coryell on guitar among other heavyweights.  But I think it was clear to just about anyone in attendance that evening that Joey stole the show.  He was just a MONSTER, one of the all-time giants on the Hammond B-3.  Miles Davis knew it, he had Joey in his band at a very young age.

To my knowledge no cause of death has been released yet, but I did read this morning that he had been suffering from ill health for a number of years.  All I know is that it was always obvious that he was carrying way too much weight.