One World, One Music: Jack DeJohnette
A drive-by survey of Jack's career as a bandleader.
Special Edition was Jack DeJohnette’s best-known band, or at least his best-known band name. Their self-titled debut, recorded in 1979 for ECM, was the first thing I reached for when I learned of Jack’s death last month1.
Before Special Edition, there was New Directions, a quartet Jack assembled the year prior, and a refinement of Directions, a band DeJohnette put together in 1975.
Directions has roots in a few record dates Jack led from 1968 to 1974, which were informed by Jack’s work with two of the biggest stars in jazz— Charles Lloyd (spring 1966 to late 1968) and Miles Davis (early 1969 into 1972). Listening to Jack’s earliest recordings, Forces of Nature and Jackie McLean’s Jacknife, we can hear his roots in Sixties Chicago, a working jazz musician who sought out Muhal Richard Abrams.
How did all this play out? What’s the overall arc of Jack DeJohnette’s musical life?
Here’s what I have:
Jack’s first record under his name is The DeJohnette Complex2 . It’s an early snapshot of Jack’s unique musical persona: tough, authoritative jazz virtuoso; Age-of-Aquarius communitarian; clear-blue-sky experimenter.
For his debut, Jack assembled an all-star cast of his peers— Stanley Cowell, Bennie Maupin, Miroslav Vitous, and Eddie Gómez. Tellingly, for half the record, Roy Haynes plays drums, and Jack plays…melodica.
Imagine the chutzpah and charisma you’d need to tell producer Orrin Keepnews that you’re going to record John Coltrane’s “Miles Mode” on melodica, with Roy Haynes on drums, for your first album. This is the Jack we’ll get to know, no doubt.
Just a few weeks later, DeJohnette joined Miles Davis, taking over from Tony Williams. Miles was the leader, the pace-setter, the law, so when Jack left Miles, in early 1972, we might expect him to form a cutting-edge fusion band, giving us his take on the Weather Report-Mwandishi-Lifetime-Mahavishnu axis.
The closest DeJohnette ever came to a fusion band is Compost, with Bob Moses on drums and Harold Vick on tenor; Jack mostly played keyboards and sang. Compost emerged from the NYC jazz-rock scene— Gary Burton and Larry Coryell; Jeremy Steig; The Free Spirits with Dave Liebman and Bob Moses; Jim Pepper and “Wichi-Tai-To”— and recorded two LPs for Columbia3 . When the band ultimately failed to take off, Jack re-directed. As DeJohnette told Bill Milkowski, it was this jazz thing or nothing.
Though it would take a few years, Jack found the perfect home for his music with the austere, artist-first aesthetic of ECM4.
That was in the near-future. First there was Have You Heard?5 (Milestone, 1970) with Bennie Maupin6, pianist Hideo Ichikawa7, and Gary Peacock8. Have You Heard? is good, an extension of The DeJohnette Complex9, and it was followed by a duet with Dave Holland, Time and Space (Trio, 1973), a Japan-only release that features marimba, a quasi-Motown tune with Jack on Farfisa-like organ, a vocal duet in the style of some West African music, an unaccompanied DeJohnette electric piano solo, and a swinging piano trio via a canny overdub. The child’s drawing on the cover tells the story10.
These feel like interesting one-offs compared to Sorcery (Prestige, 1974), with a lineup that suggests the Directions-New Directions-Special Edition continuum: Bennie Maupin, Mick Goodrick and John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, and percussionist Michael Fellerman. Sorcery is excellent, if embryonic compared to the later releases. Abercrombie would become DeJohnette’s main front-line collaborator for the next few years.
Abercrombie is the standout on the follow up to Sorcery, Cosmic Chicken (Prestige, 1975), the first DeJohnette release to carry the Directions moniker. Compare the smiling young Jack of The DeJohnette Complex to the far-seeing warrior of Cosmic Chicken: Jack’s persona was evolving.
By 1975, Jack DeJohnette wants to lead a band that can do it all— not just a wide range of jazz conceptions, but all styles, all sounds, all eras, tied together by the leader’s vision and drumming: one world, one music. This is a tall order, but Manfred Eicher is here to help.
Their first attempt at capturing DeJohnette’s band concept is Untitled (ECM, 1976), recorded the same month as Jack’s Pictures (ECM, 1976). Untitled, credited to Jack DeJohnette’s Directions, features John Abercrombie, bassist Mike Richmond, Alex Foster on saxophones, and keyboardist Warren Bernhardt11. Like Sorcery and Cosmic Chicken, Untitled hangs together via the DeJohnette/Abercrombie chemistry.
Pictures12 is more developed and focussed, with “Pictures 1”, a drum solo with cinematic organ, and “Pictures 3”, a DeJohnette/Abercrombie swinging duo, paradigmatic DeJohnette tracks, the classic ECM sound perfectly matched to DeJohnette’s musicianship. The music is taking on weight and meaning, but we’re not yet where we’re headed.
New Rags (ECM, 1977) is closer. For the first time, the different zones of Jack’s music— swing, high-energy improv, tender piano-based ballads, gestures towards pop music (rock, funk, R&B, and reggae), and something truly experimental— are now blending instead of simply coexisting. Jack’s drumming always suggested these directions. Now, the band is meeting him where he lives13.
After New Rag, Jack shuffled the deck and gave us New Directions (ECM, 1978). John Abercrombie stays, and Eddie Gómez14 comes in. The most telling change was in the front line: in place of Alex Foster, DeJohnette now has Mr. Lester Bowie.
This is it. With Lester Bowie, Jack’s ‘one-world, one-music’ idea is within grasp. Bowie is exactly who Jack needed— a leader with a vision and stature comparable to Jack’s, exactly his age. Undoubtedly, they’d first crossed paths more than ten years’ prior in Chicago, though I don’t know the details.
Only Jack DeJohnette has the audacity and musicianship to build a band around John Abercrombie and Lester Bowie. Something truly clicks into gear on New Directions: while Abercrombie and Jack walk around and admire the view, Bowie drops bon mots and grabs our attention. Finally, the concept that emerged across Sorcery, Cosmic Chicken, Untitled, and New Rags crystalizes.
Oddly, New Directions was short-lived15. Just nine months after New Directions, DeJohnette records the first album billed to Special Edition, with an all-new, all-star front line of David Murray on tenor and bass clarinet and Arthur Blythe on alto, with bassist Peter Warren, from the original Directions (Cosmic Chicken) returning16.
Now the concept doesn’t just crystalize, it gets over and lands. Special Edition isn’t a change from the DeJohnette Complex, Compost, Directions, or New Directions, just the clearest, deepest expression of Jack’s concept, a beloved classic and one of the most engaging jazz albums ever.
The four Special Edition records on ECM from the Eighties— Special Edition, Tin Can Alley, Inflation Blues, and Album Album— tell a story. More on these ASAP. For now, here’s the breakdown:
Special Edition (ECM, 1980); Arthur Blythe, David Murray, Peter Warren;
Tin Can Alley (ECM, 1981); John Purcell, Chico Freeman, Peter Warren;
Inflation Blues (ECM, 1983); Baikida Carroll, John Purcell, Chico Freeman, Rufus Reid;
Album Album (ECM, 1984); Howard Johnson, John Purcell, David Murray, Rufus Reid.
Album Album is a culmination, a masterpiece, a summing-up, the sort of thing a musician has been working towards for twenty years without realizing it. So it’s no surprise that after its release, DeJohnette put Special Edition out to pasture for a few years.
In the meantime, Jack recorded some projects unconnected to any working band: The Jack DeJohnette Piano Album (Landmark, 1985, trio with Eddie Gomez and Freddie Waits); Zebra, with Lester Bowie (MCA, recorded 1985), a soundtrack for a video installation by Tadayuki Naitoh, for which Jack plays only synths; and In Our Style (DIW, 1986), a co-led project with David Murray and Fred Hopkins.
In 1987, Jack started recording for MCA/Impulse, and reformed Special Edition with three of the best young players, all of whom are associated with Steve Coleman— Gary Thomas, Greg Osby, and Lonnie Plaxico. This is the new Special Edition, ready for the CD era, with MIDI and digital keyboards now part of the arsenal.
DeJohnette released three records total with MCA/Impulse. The first two were by the new Special Edition, and aren’t streaming:
Irresistible Forces (MCA/Impulse, 1987); Greg Osby, Gary Thomas, Mick Goodrick, Lonnie Plaxico, Nana Vasconcelos.
Audio-Visualscapes (MCA/Impulse, 1988); double LP. Greg Osby, Gary Thomas, Mick Goodrick, Lonnie Plaxico.
These are followed by Parallel Realities (MCA/Impulse, 1990) an all-star mega-record featuring a trio of Jack, Pat Metheny, and Herbie Hancock. Evidently it was a major success, supported with a big tour.17 Oddly, it doesn’t seem to be a well-known album today.
Jack brings the Special Edition name with him when he moves from MCA/Impulse to Blue Note for three albums, none of which are streaming:
Earth Walk (Blue Note, 1991); Greg Osby, Gary Thomas, Michael Cain, Lonnie Plaxico.
Music For The Fifth World (Blue Note/Manhattan, 1993), with moments of truly heavy rock, free improvisation, and chants by a Seneca vocal group, featuring John Scofield, Vernon Reid, Michael Cain, Lonnie Plaxico, and Will Calhoun, can be heard in a fan upload on YouTube. Props to Hank Shteamer for putting this release in Jack’s NY Times obituary (certainly more exposure than the album received upon release); Bill Milkowski admires this record as well. Music For The Fifth World must be the most extreme example of Jack’s ‘one-music one-world’ concept.
Extra Special Edition (Blue Note, 1995); Gary Thomas, Michael Cain, Lonnie Plaxico, plus Bobby McFerrin, Marvin Sewell, Paul Grassi (percussion). This is the final Special Edition album, a long road from 1980, even longer from 1968 and The DeJohnette Complex.
After this, DeJohnette seems to have seldom had a regular working band. The two ECMs from the Nineties, Dancing with Nature Spirits (1995) and Oneness (1997) were both by fondly-remembered but short-lived groups.
While Jack maintained his position as the last-word, high-profile guest artist (with Alice Coltrane, Luis Perdomo; George Colligan; Gonzalo Rubalcaba; Ethan Iverson; Joel Harrison) and close collaborator (with Wadada Leo Smith; John Surman; Keith Jarrett) until the very end, his own activities as a leader slowed into the Two Thousands.
Mr. DeJohnette began releasing albums on his own Golden Bear imprint, including a duo with Bill Frisell (The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers, released in 2006); two volumes of solo piano (Music In The Key of Om and Peace Time18); a trio with Danilo Perez, and John Pattitucci (Music We Are, 2009); a wide-ranging session with Ambrose Akinmusire, Jason Moran, esperanza spalding and others (Sound Travels, 2011).
Back with ECM, there’s Trio Beyond (2006), remembering Tony Williams’ Lifetime with John Scofield and Larry Goldings, followed by Made In Chicago with Henry Threadgill, Roscoe Mitchell, and Muhal Richard Abrams (recorded in 2013, released in 2015), and culminating with In Movement (2016), featuring Matthew Garrison and Ravi Coltrane. Jack’s final release as a leader was Hudson (Motema Music, 2017) a celebration of his home in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Taken together, Trio Beyond, Made In Chicago, In Motion, and Hudson feel like a memoir, maybe even an autobiography: Jack revisits his youth (Made In Chicago) and early adulthood (Trio Beyond), then lets listeners into his home (Hudson) and introduces us to his musical family (In Movement).
Released over a ten-year period, these four records consolidate and summarize Jack’s ‘one-world, one-music’ concept. This was part of Jack from the very beginning— you can hear it on Forces of Nature and Jacknife, loud and clear, and it came to fruition in the early Eighties. On these late releases, the ‘one world, one music’ concept takes on depth and emotional weight, as Jack extends the circle to his fans and supporters, showing us how this idea shaped his life.
I hope this list gives us some pegs on which to hang our thoughts about Mr. DeJohnette’s immeasurable contribution. His passing, coming on the heels of so many others, makes me stop, listen, and think. We can’t know a human being by doing what I’ve done here— tallying up days in recording studios. We await the Jack DeJohnette biography, the documentary, and memorial concerts.
I really feel it now, how this music was made for us; not in the sense that Jack DeJohnette was playing to please us. Of course not, this was his life. He played because he had to, and made the music he was compelled to make.
But he didn’t play in private. Jack DeJohnette shared his music with us. You could easily hear him in-person (at least pre-pandemic). Besides, he made dozens of albums and played on hundreds more. If this wasn’t for us, what was it for?
Here I am, staring at the screen, trying and failing once again to bring an essay to a conclusion. What to do but be glad for all this music and astonished at Mr. DeJohnette’s achievement? What an incredible life.
We are so lucky to have this music. More soon.
I was in a hotel lobby in Zurich, on tour with Ember, when I got the news. When Caleb Wheeler Curtis, Noah Garabedian, and I formed Ember, we explicitly modeled ourselves on Arthur Blythe and Jack’s Special Edition.
Released on Orrin Keepnew’s Milestone label and recorded in December 1968, just after DeJohnette left Charles Lloyd.
Both are streaming; a version of Jack’s “Inflation Blues”, the reggae title track of Jack’s 1983 Special Edition LP, closes the first Compost record.
Some say Jack’s the most-recorded sideman on ECM. While I don’t have comparative stats at hand, I counted over seventy Jack appearances on ECM— a stunning body of work and incredible artistic achievement.
Have You Heard? was recorded in Tokyo, 1970; Time and Space was recorded in Tokyo in 1973.
Maupin is an important DeJohnette collaborator— check out the Chick Corea quartet of Maupin, Corea, Holland, and DeJohnette who gave us “The Brain” from May, 1969. “The Brain” should be our first example of cutting-edge jazz in 1969, but because of the vagaries of record companies and selective reissue campaigns, “The Brain” is not in the conversation.
Ichikawa sounds good; he was evidently a major part of the Tokyo jazz community.
Peacock was then living in Tokyo, and Have You Heard? is the first recording of Jack and Gary.
Jack’s tune “Papa-Daddy”, for Roy Haynes, is on both DeJohnette Complex and Have You Heard?
There’s also a full-length LP of DeJohnette on melodica and piano with Mitsuaki Furuno on bass and George Ohtsuka on drums, (Jackeyboard, Trio, 1973) but I haven’t heard it yet.
Bernhardt is sort of the odd man out on Untitled, and this was the only DeJohnette session he was a part of.
Pictures is credited to Jack DeJohnette, with no mention of Directions. Three tracks are solo Jack (some with overdubs), three tracks are Abercrombie/Jack duos.
Sorcery, Cosmic Chicken, Pictures, Untitled, and New Rags. Save Pictures, these are almost unheard albums. This is what I mean about not really knowing my heroes: Jack’s been a leader on my instrument since I first became aware of jazz as a genre, yet I’d never heard of these records, and don’t know anyone who’s into them; I’ve never even heard anyone mention them. This is endless.
Gomez hadn’t been on a Jack record since The DeJohnette Complex.
New Directions In Europe (ECM, 1980) recorded at a concert in Switzerland in June, 1979, is the group’s only other release; I prefer the studio album, FWIW.
Did Jack originally intend this as simply a “special edition” of New Directions? Was New Directions, which recorded and toured in Europe, going to be Jack’s European quartet, and Special Edition (recorded in NYC at Generation Sound) his American quartet, in the manner of Keith Jarrett? Or was a band with Lester Bowie, the charismatic frontman of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and his own bands, always going to be a temporary thing?
When they toured, Dave Holland joined the group. There’s at least one well-known video of this band currently on YouTube.
DeJohnette recorded a volume of solo piano for Newvelle Records called Return (2015).
Composing an overview of Jack DeJohnette’s career must be like trying to nail jelly to the wall, but you did it! Focusing on his leadership work was a wise decision; too many people hear Jack ‘s name and think Bitches Brew or Standards Trio. (Not that those aren’t great…) For me, Gateway and Directions announced that great jazz could be created with electric instruments at a moment when fusion was degenerating into a musclebound and predictable chops pageant. I hopped on the DeJohnette train with those albums and never got off. Thanks for your scholarship.
Perhaps a bit off-topic, but at Friday's AACM-NY concert at Roulette in Brooklyn we were told that at age 16 Jack studied with Muhal Richard Abrams. This doesn't come up in many (any?) bios of Jack, who a few years later was part of Muhal's Experimental Band.