Jack DeJohnette

Jack DeJohnette gifted with great technique, DeJohnette has frequented the most diverse styles (hard bop, fusion, free jazz, post-bop). His drumming is notable for a remarkable sense of timing, great inventiveness and improvisational skills.

He began his career as a pianist, a capacity in which he also participated in several recording sessions, but as a teenager he had already studied the drums, which became his instrument of choice. In the early 1960s he played with John Coltrane.

In 1966 he moved to New York, where he was again with Coltrane and Jackie McLean. His real break came in 1966 when he joined Charles Lloyd’s quartet, with whom he stayed for two years.

Jack DeJohnette’s good fortune came his way again in 1969 when Miles Davis called him into his stellar group to replace Tony Williams, and he remained there until 1972, participating in the recording of the seminal Bitches Brew album, among other things, and meeting Keith Jarrett, his partner in many artistic adventures to come.

After his experience with Davis, he recorded several records as a leader and sideman with the ECM label, and created his first permanent band, “Directions,” which paved the way for the second band called “New Directions.” In early 1979 he led “Special Edition,” a superlative combo that recorded some excellent records and became trendy in the 1980s.

Since 1983 he has been a permanent member of Keith Jarrett’s piano trio. Of course, he alternates this commitment with projects with other musicians, such as saxophonist John Surman or the trio “Gateway.”

In 2006 De Johnette with Trio Beyond released “Saudades” on the German label ECM. Saudades is a double live recording made during a concert the trio gave at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on November 21, 2004.

The songs are taken mainly from two albums in the Tony Williams Lifetime repertoire, but there is no shortage of classics such as Miles Davis’ well-known “Seven Steps To Heaven.” De Johnette’s performance was superb, but also that of the other 2 members of the “Beyond Trio”: Goldings on organ and Scofield on guitar.