Jack DeJohnette: First and Last

Jack DeJohnette, a high-energy drummer who favored emotional abstraction, peppered distraction and percussive force to stand out in virtually any jazz setting and whose career passed through multiple jazz styles, including post-bop, modal jazz, fusion and neo-acoustic, died on Oct. 26. He was 83. [Photo above of Jack DeJohnette in the early 1960s by Francis Wolff © Blue Note Records]

DeJohnette liked to keep his contribution busy—pushing ensemble leaders with complex figures and provocative patterns and textures that encouraged them to lean into their music and take their own performances to another level.

But DeJohnette was different from his major contemporaries, such as Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Art Blakey and Billy Cobham. Rather than muscle through, he often created a twin-universe attack, as if playing for two different types of listeners. On the exterior, there were driving runs, crashing cymbals and restless bass-drum figures.

At the same time, on the inside, he often created activity in miniature. A careful listener would not only experience the massive stone buildings he was assembling but also the delicate and pretty rhythmic touches as he furnished the proverbial rooms.

Rather than load you down with clips, I decided to share DeJohnette’s first recording as a sideman on an album by Jackie McLean and one of his last recordings with the wonderful Russian pianist Ivan Farmikovskiy.

Here’s DeJohnette’s Climax from Jacknife featuring Jackie McLean (as), Lee Morgan (tp); Larry Willis (p), Larry Ridley (b) and DeJohnette (d)…

Here’s one of DeJohnette’s last albums, with the spectacular pianist Ivan Farmakovskiy and bassist Christian McBride…

Bonus: Here’s DeJohnette with the Charles Lloyd Quartet in 1966, playing East of the Sun. Charles Lloyd (ts), Keith Jarrett (p), Cecil McBee (b) and Jack DeJohnette (d)…