Photo by K. Abe, h/t to Dean Frey for sharing it
Just saw the news that Jack Dejohnette passed away, at age 83. Our second great loss in recent months, along with Roy Haynes— two of the most influential, accomplished people ever to play this instrument.
Dejohnette may have been the last of the great historic innovators of the modern language and instrument of the drums, after Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams. There’s a kind of arrival with Jack Dejohnette, to a fully formed, four limbed instrument. There have certainly been different fashions of playing since him, and many highly skilled and creative artists, but the instrument itself and its playing vocabulary was completed by Dejohnette. Not a perfect analogy, but thinking in terms of the development of the tonal system in classical music, if Max Roach is our JS Bach, Jack Dejohnette is our Debussy or Wagner— after them you’re largely working in an established language, or abandoning the field altogether. A large part of what we do here is in aid of getting to his way of playing.
As a player, he’s one of the first, and most influential people assimilating things done by the early free players, and I think in large part taking them to a higher level of accomplishment. He could play extremely densely, and would float the time, at times, there is also a clear, very deep sense of groove. Getting a little technical, I think his playing is the first where we see the groove stated across the instrument, in a broken way, in the subdivisions— similar to Jon Christensen. Maybe you can hear what I’m talking about in the Freddie Hubbard track below.
There’s always so pathetically little you can say about these players, compared to what’s on the records, the direct fact of the music itself. Here are an absurdly few selected tracks— it would take a major retrospective to do a proper tribute.
Straight Life – Freddie Hubbard / Straight Life
India – Jack Dejohnette / Special Edition
God Bless The Child – Keith Jarrett / Standards, vol. 1
Blue – Gateway / II – written by Jack Dejohnette, Dejohnette on piano
And my personal selected discography, maybe 15-20% of his major output. Most of these I’ve listened to a lot, and recommend everyone else do the same:
John Aberccrombie – Timeless
George Adams – Sound Suggestions
George Benson – Beyond The Blue Horizon
Michael Brecker – Michael Brecker, Don’t Try This At Home, Pilgrimage
Jack Dejohnette – New Rags, Pictures, New Directions, Special Edition, Audio Visualscapes, Parallel Realities, The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers
Miles Davis – Live Evil, Black Beauty, Live At The Filmore East
Bill Evans – Live at Montreux
Joe Farrell – Moon Germs
Gateway – I, II, In The Moment
Joe Henderson – Power To The People, Black Is The Color
Dave Holland – Triplicate
Freddie Hubbard – Straight Life, Polar AC
Keith Jarrett – Standards, vol. 1-2, Standards Live, Still Live, Changes, The Cure
Lee Konitz – Peacemeal, Satori
Pat Metheny – 80/81
Pat Metheny / Ornette Colemen – Song X
Gary Peacock – Tales Of Another
Terje Rypdal – Ryptal Vitous Dejohnette
John Scofield – Time On My Hands
Ralph Towner – Batik
McCoy Tyner – Supertrios, Together
Miroslav Vitous – Infinite Search
Kenny Wheeler – Double Double You, Gnu High
The newish Forces of Nature McCoy Tyner/Joe Henderson live at Slugs’ with Jack DeJohnette and Henry Grimes with worth checking out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1XhXiUCcZg&list=RDI1XhXiUCcZg&start_radio=1
Thank you Todd, for all of your work helping to understand and appreciate Jack’s music. His conversation on the Stick People video podcast is worth watching. His passing, hits hard but he even talks about eternal energy in his conversation on Stick People. Think you can hear that spiritual element in his less drum based work, like Peace Time.