Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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DeJOHNETTE, Jack

(b 9 August 1942, Chicago) Drummer; also piano, composer, sometime vocalist. He studied classical piano for ten years, played drums in high school inspired by Max Roach, studied at the American Conservatory of Music; played everything from R&B to free jazz, practising hours every day on both piano and drums. In Chicago at that time 'there were always musicians playing somewhere.' He heard Sun Ra and Rahsaan Roland Kirk; playing piano, he took a group into the Archway Lounge, where Muhal Richard Abrams heard him, and later invited him to join his Experimental Band. Abrams advised him to go to New York to seek his fortune.   

He went to New York '66 and gigged widely, playing with Charles Lloyd '66-9; he played on Miles Davis's Bitches Brew '69 and joined Davis '70-71 including LP Live-Evil, demonstrating eclectic power: in the '70s he became world famous. He led a group called Compost after leaving Davis (Take Off Your Body '72 on Columbia); he recorded for ECM as leader '76, from '79 with varying personnel as Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition. He recorded with Lloyd, Bill Evans, Freddie Hubbard, many others; his own albums include The Jack DeJohnette Complex '68 on Milestone, Have You Heard? '70 on Epic (made in Japan), Sorcery '74 on Prestige, all with Bennie Maupin on tenor sax and bass clarinet; Cosmic Chicken '75 on Prestige '75, on ECM Untitled '76, Pictures '76, New Rags '77, New Directions '78, all with guitarist John Abercrombie; New Directions In Europe '78 with Abercrombie, Lester Bowie, Eddie Gomez; Special Edition '79 with David Murray, Arthur Blythe, Peter Warren on cello and bass; Special Edition: Tin Can Alley '80 and Inflation Blues '82 with Chico Freeman; Album Album on ECM, The Piano Album '85 on Landmark, with Gomez and Freddie Waits; Irresistible Force '87 on MCA/Impulse with Lonnie Plaxico on electric and acoustic bass, Nana Vasconcelos on vocals and percussion, three others.

His many albums as a sideman included Freeman's Destiny's Dance and Song X by Ornette Coleman and Pat Metheny. Parallel Realities '89 on MCA featured Metheny and Herbie Hancock. More albums: Extra Edition Special on Blue Note with Plaxico, Bobby McFerrin etc; Dancing With The Spirits of Nature on ECM with Steve Gorn on reeds including bonsuri flute; another ECM album '78 co-led with Terje Rypdal and Miroslav Vitous.

Having reached the age of 70, DeJohnette was asked by the Chicago Jazz Festival to put together an appearance. 'I saw this as a great opportunity to come home and reunite everyone.' The result took place on 29 August 2013, proclaimed Jack DeJohnette Day by the mayor of Chicago, with Abrams on piano, Roscoe Mitchell and Henry Threadgill on reeds, and a younger Chicagoan, Larry Gray, who had known DeJohnette for nearly 20 years, on bass. Released on ECM in early 2015 as Made In Chicago, it was regarded by a great many music fans as one of the best CDs of the year.