Jack DeJohnette

Bitches Brew

Miles Davis · 1970

In a Silent Way

Miles Davis · 1969

Miles's 1969–70 studio experiments fused rock's rhythmic sensibility with jazz improvisation. Bitches BrewBitches BrewMiles Davis · 1970 layered McLaughlinJohn McLaughlinジョン・マクラフリン, CoreaChick Coreaチック・コリア, HancockHerbie Hancockハービー・ハンコック, and others in simultaneous collective improvisation.

Standards, Vol. 1

Keith Jarrett · 1983

From 1983, the Keith JarrettKeith Jarrettキース・ジャレット Standards Trio played as if standards were already inside them. The skeletal familiarity freed them to focus entirely on what was happening in the moment.

Bitches Brew

Miles Davis · 1970

Miles DavisMiles Davisマイルス・デイヴィス gathered over twenty musicians in August 1969 and, paired with Teo Macero's tape editing, transformed jazz from "recorded performance" to "constructed recording." Bitches BrewBitches BrewMiles Davis · 1970 launched jazz-rock fusion.

— So What: The Life of Miles Davis, John Szwed, 2002

Estival Jazz Lugano, 1986. The Keith JarrettKeith Jarrettキース・ジャレット Standards Trio — Gary PeacockGary Peacockゲイリー・ピーコック (bass), Jack DeJohnetteJack DeJohnetteジャック・ディジョネット (drums) — live in Switzerland. From Qwest TV.

— Estival Jazz Lugano, 1986

February 1985, Koseinenkin Hall, Tokyo. The Keith JarrettKeith Jarrettキース・ジャレット Standards Trio with Gary PeacockGary Peacockゲイリー・ピーコック (bass) and Jack DeJohnetteJack DeJohnetteジャック・ディジョネット (drums). Recorded shortly after the release of Standards (ECM, 1983), capturing the trio at a defining moment in its development.

— Koseinenkin Hall, Tokyo, 1985

July 9, 1990, Jazz à Vienne. The Parallel Realities tour — Herbie HancockHerbie Hancockハービー・ハンコック (piano), Pat MethenyPat Methenyパット・メセニー (guitar), Jack DeJohnetteJack DeJohnetteジャック・ディジョネット (drums), Dave HollandDave Hollandデイヴ・ホランド (bass). A miraculous meeting of four musicians each at a peak in their careers.

— Jazz à Vienne, 1990

80/81

Pat Metheny · 1980

80/8180/81Pat Metheny · 1980 (1980) brought Pat MethenyPat Methenyパット・メセニー together with Michael BreckerMichael Breckerマイケル・ブレッカー, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden, and Jack DeJohnetteJack DeJohnetteジャック・ディジョネット. The double-album of long-form improvisation showed a darker side beyond the Pat Metheny Group's sunlit image.

— 80/81, Wikipedia, 2024

Formed in 1983 with Keith JarrettKeith Jarrettキース・ジャレット, Gary PeacockGary Peacockゲイリー・ピーコック, and Jack DeJohnetteJack DeJohnetteジャック・ディジョネット, the Standards Trio held the same lineup for nearly three decades — a rarity. The first sessions yielded three albums in two days.

— Setting Standards: New York Sessions, Wikipedia, 2024

In 1979, Jack DeJohnetteJack DeJohnetteジャック・ディジョネット launched Special Edition, wrapping the loft-jazz vocabulary of David Murray and Arthur Blythe in an ECM sound — the apex of his work as a leader-drummer.

— Special Edition (Jack DeJohnette album), Wikipedia, 2024

Tales from the Hudson

Michael Brecker · 1996

Word of Mouth

Jaco Pastorius · 1981

The New Standard

Herbie Hancock · 1996

80/81

Pat Metheny · 1980

On Pat Metheny's ECM date 80/81 (1980), two tenors stood side by side: Michael Brecker, by then a fusion and pop studio staple, and Dewey Redman, straight out of the free-jazz lineage. Pairing the studio ace with the avant-garde tenor was the whole point of the record.

— Statement stmt-jack-dejohnette-on-michael-brecker

Live-Evil

Miles Davis · 1971

Bitches Brew

Miles Davis · 1970

In 1969, Miles Davis showed up to the Bitches Brew sessions with only sketches and a few bass patterns — no charts. He set the tempo in the room and, when a take wasn't right, stopped it and had the band try something else. What sounds like a fully composed suite was steered into being on the spot, drummer Jack DeJohnette recalls.

— Statement stmt-jack-dejohnette-on-miles-davis-2

Live-Evil

Miles Davis · 1971

Bitches Brew

Miles Davis · 1970

Black Is The Color

Joe Henderson · 1972

Tales from the Hudson

Michael Brecker · 1996

Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette first played together at a 1967 jam session in London, where Holland says it felt complete from the very first beat. Three years later both names sit in the credits of Bitches Brew (1970). The pairing was not assembled in a New York studio; it had already clicked on the other side of the Atlantic.

— Statement stmt-dave-holland-on-jack-dejohnette

Bitches Brew

Miles Davis · 1970

Standards, Vol. 1

Keith Jarrett · 1983

Special Edition

Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition · 1980

Gateway

Gateway · 1975

The electric bass on Bitches Brew (1970) belongs to an outsider: Harvey Brooks came out of rock session work, not jazz, and was doubled with Dave Holland on the date. The weight under Jack DeJohnette's drums is half the work of a hand hired from another world.

Live-Evil

Miles Davis · 1971

Bitches Brew

Miles Davis · 1970

Black Is The Color

Joe Henderson · 1972

Tales from the Hudson

Michael Brecker · 1996

Drummer Jack DeJohnette, who played in Miles Davis's early-1970s electric bands alongside Chick Corea and Dave Holland, once said their improvising would go to "totally ecstatic" places — until Miles stepped back in and pulled everything back to a single center. The band's apparent freedom, in other words, actually orbited Miles himself.

— Statement stmt-jack-dejohnette-on-chick-corea

Tales from the Hudson

Michael Brecker · 1996

80/81

Pat Metheny · 1980

Michael Brecker

Michael Brecker · 1987

Angelus

Milton Nascimento · 1993

On 80/81 (1980), Michael Brecker — then the most in-demand studio saxophonist in New York, and heard as a fusion player — is trading with Dewey Redman and Charlie Haden, both out of the free jazz world. Pat Metheny wrote all of the material.

— Statement stmt-jack-dejohnette-on-pat-metheny

Live-Evil

Miles Davis · 1971

Bitches Brew

Miles Davis · 1970

Black Is The Color

Joe Henderson · 1972

Tales from the Hudson

Michael Brecker · 1996

Don Alias was brought to Bitches Brew (1970) as a percussionist, but on "Miles Runs the Voodoo Down" he is the one at the drum kit — the New Orleans-flavored beat was his idea, and the leader told him to play it himself.

— Statement stmt-jack-dejohnette-on-don-alias

I think playing with Miles, with Dave Holland, Chick Corea and Wayne was a very exciting period. We always couldn't wait to get on the bandstand to see what kind of mischief we could get into.

Recalling his two-to-three years in the Miles Davis band, 1968-70.

Miles had some sketches and bass patterns. He'd ask me, "play a groove, play this," and he'd count off a tempo and if that wasn't it he'd say, "No, that's not it!" and he'd say to try something else.

On how Miles Davis directed him in the studio during the 1969 Bitches Brew sessions.

The tours on that were really some fantastic playing from everybody, but just hearing the styles of Dewey and Michael, and (they) both admired each other.

On the contrasting tenor styles of Michael Brecker and Dewey Redman during the tours for Pat Metheny's 1980 album 80/81.

Pat wrote all the pieces and he's a great writer, composer and producer so the concerts were just amazing. Really highly creative, everybody got along great.

On Pat Metheny's writing for the 1980 album 80/81 and the quintet's live dates.

We also played together on Herbie's New Standards, that was a great recording which featured Michael Brecker, John Scofield, Dave Holland, myself and Don Alias.

Listing his work with percussionist Don Alias, including Herbie Hancock's The New Standard (1995).

Chick and Dave would go to a lot of frenetic places. Then, when Miles came back, everything would galvanize, come back to a center.

DeJohnette on how Corea and Holland ranged wildly on the bandstand until Miles returned and pulled the music back to a center.

From the very first time we played, from the very first beat, it just felt perfect, it just felt like we knew how to play with each other.

Recalling first playing with Jack DeJohnette at a late-night London jam session in 1967.