On Jack DeJohnette

Forces of Nature; NYTimes; Special Edition.

What we celebrate is what we value, and what we ignore is what we normalize. Finding reasons to celebrate is arguably as important as doing the hard work worth celebrating. 

-Charlie Becker

Nate Chinen deftly acknowledged the suffering in North Carolina in this post. He spoke for us all, and said it perfectly— how can we be celebrate in the midst of the chaos surrounding us? It’s the right question, and I think Charlie Becker gives a possible answer.

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As per Chinen’s article….

At every gig for the past few weeks, talk has centered on Forces of Nature, the coming Blue Note release of a 1966 Slugs’ date by Joe Henderson and McCoy Tyner with bassist Henry Grimes and Jack DeJohnette on drums. Produced by archivist Zev Feldman, Blue Note has released just one track— “Isotope”— and we’re already going nuts.

If you haven’t heard it yet, it’s just stunning— McCoy and Henderson are at an early peak, Grimes and DeJohnette are a perfect team. Jack might be the highlight, as he integrates his highly personal vocabulary of Elvin and Tony-inspired roars and rolls into the Kenny Clarke cymbal beat:

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I think my generation knows Jack DeJohnette mostly as the ultimate guest artist, ready to breathe fire on anyone’s project, or as the difference-splitter in Keith Jarrett’s Standards trio. But DeJohnette has a fully-developed perspective as a bandleader; a concert during my freshman year at William Paterson by DeJohnette’s Oneness, a trio of Jack, Jerome Harris on acoustic bass guitar or electric guitar, and Michael Cain on piano, stays with me. It was mystifying and inviting, nothing like what I’d expected.

The first four Jack DeJohnette Special Edition records on ECM— Special Edition (1980), Tin Can Alley (1981), Inflation Blues (1983) and Album Album (1984) are classics, a beguiling mix of seriousness and whimsy. Sort of like the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Special Edition did it all— Ellington and Monk, wooly free improvisations, original compositions, and nods to pop music.

Here’s a few personal favorites from those records, and a track from Oneness:

• “Journey To The Twin Planet” (DeJohnette) from Special Edition (ECM, 1978). A multi-part suite— build-up, liftoff, travel through outer space, and then touchdown on the twin planet, shades of Sun Ra?— with DeJohnette’s melodica heavily featured and otherworldly. Someone should cover this tune.

• “Inflation Blues” (DeJohnette) from Inflation Blues (ECM, 1983). Straight reggae, with Reid on electric bass, Jack on drums, vocals, and clavinet. Jack and the band slide effortlessly into Jack’s great feel. Lots of fun, and a counterweight to the more experimental side of the group.

• “Slowdown” (DeJohnette) from Inflation Blues (ECM, 1983). Was this a fully-improvised tune? I treasure the Rufus Reid/DeJohnette duo at the top, then trumpeter Baikida Carroll almost steals the show from woodwind players John Purcell and Chico Freeman. Somehow, we can feel that it’s the same band as “Inflation Blues”.

• “Ahmad The Terrible” (DeJohnette) from Album Album (ECM, 1984). The simple theme, nicely evoking Ahmad Jamal, gives way to some serious fire from Purcell and David Murray, perfectly summarizing the Special Edition perspective. DeJohnette’s piano overdub— soloing and comping— completes the rhythm section of himself and Rufus Reid.

• “Free Above Sea” (Don Alias/Jerome Harris/Michael Cain/Jack DeJohnette) from Oneness (ECM, 1997). The quartet sustains a mood, suggests images, and plays collectively, following DeJohnette’s cymbal wherever it leads. Don Alias and DeJohnette sound like one musician, so in sympathy are they, and shoutout to Jerome Harris and Michael Cain. This should be a better-known album.

My friend Hank Shteamer’s recent, excellent article on Jack for the New York Times is here. I’m hoping we get a few more years of Jack DeJohnette, and can show him the respect he deserves while he’s alive, as Hank did in his great piece.

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The Slugs’ gig that became Forces of Nature took place in the spring of 1966. I try to imagine what the world looked like to the nonpareils playing the gig— DeJohnette, then 24 years old, Joe Henderson and McCoy Tyner, 29 and 28 respectively, and Henry Grimes the senior member at 31. These are four of the greatest-ever, just a few decades after the music’s birth, slogging it out in a bar. They could not have known the heights they would reach, and they played at Slugs’ as if their lives depended on it. If I were in their shoes, how sanguine would I have been about the future? Would I have been able to give my all at Slugs’?

Elvin Jones’s Revival: Live At Pookie’s Pub, another archival Blue Note release from 2022, tells a similar story. Ashely Kahn’s great liner notes show how Elvin was essentially rebuilding his career from the ground up at Pookie’s in ‘67, working nightly for very little money, just two years after being a part of the greatest group in the music’s history, the John Coltrane Quartet.

It’s a good reminder: there have always been challenges, there will always be challenges. Revival and Forces of Nature are glimpses of challenges met.

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1971 BERLIN JAZZTAGE POSTSCRIPT:

Two sets from the 1971 Berlin Jazz Festival have appeared on YouTube in recent weeks, helping us understand.

• Ornette Coleman with Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell. The first extended footage of Blackwell at full strength, with all his chops and power, kicking Coleman, Redman, and Charlie all across the stage, that I’ve ever seen. This is the Ed Blackwell of This Is Our Music, of Eric Dolphy’s At the Five Spot, of Science Fiction. The whole concert is extraordinary, one of the greatest bands in jazz at full blast, the music grand and thick, the group’s camaraderie easily felt. Click on the link in the comments to take you to “Street Woman” from Science Fiction. Blackwell’s hitting hard, and it’s easy to imagine him at home in New Orleans with some local rhythm and blues stars before hitting the road with Ray Charles. For good context of this band, I recommend Ethan Iverson’s Coleman overview.

• Tony Williams Lifetime with Larry Young, Ted Dunbar, and Juini Booth. Grateful for new, excellent Larry Young footage— now I know how he created his trademark repeated-note tremor— and Williams is at a technical peak. But one can sense Williams’s discomfort, and at the concert’s end, there are some very unkind audience reactions. As always, I give it up for Williams’ commitment, bravery, and excellence, and it’s cool hearing early versions of tunes from The Old Bum’s Rush, including “Changing Man” and “You Make It Easy”. Williams and Larry Young are in peak form, they get a lot of screen time, and the opening suite of “Pee Wee” and “Mystic Knights of the Sea”, despite some issues, is just about right on.

Stunning that in late 2024 we’re still getting new footage of legendary masters. There will never be a reason not to celebrate this music.