A Quick Dispatch on Drummer Jack DeJohnette 8/9/1942- 10/26-25

Gratitude...

I suspect that virtually everyone can agree that no one shaped the rhythmic tide of modern jazz, its ebb and flow, like Jack DeJohnette. Post 1970 he was THE guy. He played on at least 1150 recordings. Think about that— how many people valued his talent. It’s on the order of 20 records a year. And every kind of jazz music imaginable, funk, fusion, free, atmospheric, straight ahead.

The fact that I got to record with him is still surprising and one of the musical highlights of my life. Here is my original post on this experience from 2023. I am also including audio of our recording of The Times They Are a Changin.’ This seemed like his favorite track from the record. Do yourself a favor and check out the fill he does on the head out (chorus.) Yikes. No one else…but really, it’s the feel. THE feel. It’s at the bottom of the post.

Jack died on Oct. 26 of heart failure. The void he leaves will be felt by musicians and listeners around the world.

From 2023

When Highnote Records agreed to do a new record with me, they asked me to assemble a group that might get some attention. I’m getting to that age where I’m making the so-called bucket list. I asked myself if there was somebody I’d always dreamed about recording with that I might be able to get on board. I thought of Jack DeJohnette for a number of reasons. First, he’s one of the greatest drummers of all time. Second, I know people who have played with him, and I knew they would vouch for me. Finally, I knew that he was fond of recording at Dreamland Studio which is in his backyard in Woodstock. I am friends with the owner of Dreamland, so I figured this might make it easier for him to say yes.

I screwed up my courage and emailed him. To my surprise he wrote me back a week later, saying that he’d checked out my music as well as the music of my band mates, Gary Versace and Greg Tardy, and that he would be happy to make the session. I immediately began to get nervous. Me with Jack? I felt like an impostor. This is a drummer who’s played with just about every jazz legend of the past 50 years, Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny, Bill Evans, and that’s only the start. The number of records he is on is staggering. I resolved to forget all that. There was no way I could talk myself out of this opportunity. When you get to a certain point in life you know what you are capable of and what you are not capable of. I had no illusions about outdoing any of his previous efforts. I would just be myself and that would be enough.

And how to compose for the session? I always write for the group at hand. Hmmm…well I decided to keep things simple. But not too predictable. One -page charts, plenty of harmony, righteous grooves, charts wide and roomy enough to allow for instant communication. Oh, of course I wished for something different after it was over, something more wild and mysterious. But I got the job done.

With an artist like Jack you do not rehearse. The organ player Gary Versace and I got together beforehand and went over things. We took an hour or so with the saxophone player Gregory Tardy the night before the session as well. Scant preparation, but useful, because I needed to hear the music to know if the compositions were sound.

Jack rolled into the session a little late, quietly greeted us, and walked straight over to the drum set. There was absolutely no preamble. The engineer got the drum sounds where he wanted them, and with almost no discussion we began to play the first song. I’m not sure he even looked at the charts.

I’ve been preparing my whole life so as not to screw up moments like this. Every musician has gone through some version of it, where the stakes are big, you’re on edge, the moment calls, and you respond. When the music starts you’re beyond worry, beyond thinking, you’re in the now, reacting to what’s at hand. It’s part danger, part adrenaline, part vulnerability, part motor memory, part emotion all wrapped up in the spirit of the music and the invisible connections between the players.

So what did it feel like to make music with this legendary drummer? The feeling from the drum booth was one of being elevated, supported and pushed at the same time, like riding the current of a mighty river.

All great drummers are obviously not the same. One of the amazing things about Jack is that he plays a lot but it never feels like a lot. For instance he did a fill on the Dylan tune, The Times They are ‘a Changin’, that crossed the bar lines, and defied expectation, and if anyone else had done it you might have said, “Why’d ya do that?”…but it sounded fantastic. Jack plays around the beat, painting the time, providing the pulse but shaping it with an endless variety of embellishments. It’s intense, especially on a fast tune, because if you waver he may push you right off the road. It’s totally solid but manifestly creative. I used a river as a metaphor before. Think of it this way. The water has an inexorable pull, the current has braids, the braids keep changing, pulling right and left, crisscrossing, never predictable, but always moving towards the sea.

I don’t think Jack said more than 20 words from the drum booth in eight hours of recording. We had a nice chat at lunch. He’s a gentle, intensely intelligent conversationalist. But music is really his language. Often it took the first take to work out the song, and by the second one we had it. My favorite moment was at the end of the session. Jack was tired (he’s 80 years old but you’d never know it.) He was ready to go home. I asked him to do one more and he agreed. Jack had been free improvising on the drums between takes, the few minutes where I was changing guitars, or someone was on a bathroom break. It always sounded fantastic. I asked him to do that as an intro to our last song, “Parvati.” We just did one take, and it’s intense. If you do buy the record, listen to the way he goads the soloists on, this profuse dialogue especially on the snare drum that gives ballast and yet pushes and shapes the sax and organ lines. He gave his all on this piece and all the others.

I should mention that whatever success we had was also due to the phenomenal work of Gary and Greg as well. Both were inspiring, nailing the music in every way.