Music Monday: Jack DeJohnette

I probably don’t pay enough attention to drumming when I listen to music. I know that I should, but I get distracted.

In any event, with Jack DeJohnette’s birthday on August 9th, this weekend seemed like as good a time as any to listen a bit more carefully to drumming. 

To do this, I listened to a pair of old favorites and pair of albums that I hadn’t played for quite a few years.

I started with DeJohnette’s outing with Joe Henderson on his album Multiple (1973). This might be one of my favorite 1970s jazz albums. It’s just fantastic from top to bottom with Henderson on point and DeJohnette and Dave Holland in lockstep. The opening track, “Tress-Cun-Deo-La” demonstrated DeJohnette’s ability to anchor an album and push it forward with a kind of precisely frenetic drive. 

I think changed course dramatically and put on DeJohnette’s duo with Leo Wadada Smith on his 2008 album America. If Multiple show cased the propulsive character of DeJohnette’s drumming, America showed how DeJohnette could share the spotlight and amplify and complement Smith’s plaintive horn. 

In contrast to the militantly acoustic sounds of America, DeJohnette’s Sorcery (1974) is a wonderful hodgepodge of 1970s jazz. It partners DeJohnette with Dave Holland on bass and Bennie Maupin on sax (and DeJohnette plays some c-melody sax on it!). 

Finally, as we enter the last gasp of summertime, I am enjoying some of my favorite summertime albums. DeJohnette and a young Keith Jarret who later make such an impact with Live-Evil era Miles (to name just a particularly contrasting example), team up with Charles Lloyd on his 1966 classic Dream Weaver.