Jack De Johnette RIP

[felser]

9 hours ago, Holy Ghost said:

Yep. Tremendous set for all the right reasons. 

Like Jack very much here too

 

One of my two or three favorite McLean albums, which is saying a lot.

[Daniel A]

I like Jack's groove on this one:

 

 

[Holy Ghost]

53 minutes ago, felser said:

One of my two or three favorite McLean albums, which is saying a lot.

Same for me. 

[ep1str0phy]

Yeah, Jacknife is the one I go to after the Moncur/Hutcherson groups. It's very early for DeJohnette, but his playing animates what might have otherwise been a routine session. 

I like the "Is" Sessions double CD, too. The music seems to occupy a midway point between the Lost Quintet and Circle. The energy is off the charts, even if the improvisations can feel a little incoherent at times. IMO the real knock on the recording is that the music lacks a guiding voice - there's no Miles to editorialize the rambling or a Cecil or Braxton to give the freedom explicit direction. It's a transitional moment for virtually everyone involved. 

[clifford_thornton]

Jack is also on Corea’s The Sun, which is a little more concise. Is feels more like a search down various tributaries, which is interesting even if not all of those tributaries bear obvious fruit.

[Niko]

I played Jackie McLean's Demon Dance these days, it's another McLean favorite with great DeJohnette...

[ep1str0phy]

That's also a really good one. I like the push-and-pull of Grossman nudging the music into Coltrane territory and the rhythm section vacillating between modalism and abstraction. 

There's something special about this period in the music. There's just so much crossover in the interval between roughly '65 and the early 1970s, where the boundaries between mainstream and fringe felt porous and mutable. And there were so many sub-factors influencing the development of the music, like the death of Coltrane, the exodus of American jazz musicians to Europe (and vice-versa), the cross-pollination of ideas from Europe, South Africa, Latin America, etc., monumental political upheaval throughout the world, and so on. 

Our reading of this music is (almost by necessity) informed by historical understanding, as so much of it went undocumented and what we do have in hand has been litigated in writing and discussion for over half a century. I know that some of the board members were there. As far as I know, however, so many of the inherited biases of 21st century jazz friction against the reality of what was happening at that time.

Edited November 8 by ep1str0phy

[JSngry]

Thoughts on Cosmic Chicken?

I like it on the Quirk Factor alone.

[felser]

2 hours ago, ep1str0phy said:

Yeah, Jacknife is the one I go to after the Moncur/Hutcherson groups. 

 

Same here.  'One Step Beyond' is the other one I know would be on my list of 2-3 favorites by him.

[Niko]

I think Cosmic Chicken is invaluable listening in order to place the (old) Directions albums on ECM in time and space... it's even less consistent but it gives you a sense of what is Eicher and what is DeJohnette on those later albums...

[JSngry]

19 minutes ago, Niko said:

I think Cosmic Chicken is invaluable listening in order to place the (old) Directions albums on ECM in time and space... it's even less consistent but it gives you a sense of what is Eicher and what is DeJohnette on those later albums...

And Alex Foster...lost to studio work and the SNL band, but no small potential shown. Both slick and slippery!

[Niko]

I've wondered about Alex Foster on those albums... His best moments are amazing... But he also comes across as someone who know exactly how to respond to "let's play this as a slow bounce with a samba backdrop in sixth"... And in many ways it's great that he knows his craft... But maybe, from time to time, it would have been even better if he would have said "I don't know how to do this" with the subtext of "I know exactly how to do this but what an awful idea"

Edited November 8 by Niko

[felser]

I saw Alex Foster with the Mingus Dynasty Group (Jack Walrath leading) back in, I think, the early 90's, and he was pretty great.  He's never reached me on record the way he did live that night. 

[Milestones]

I read the piece on DeJohnette in the December Downbeat.  He's just been elected to the Downbeat Hall of Fame (Readers).  As I recall, it seems like an awful lot of musicians go in during the year of death.  In fact, I am wondering if you have to be alive to elected--in many cases, alive for a portion of the year.  But in this of Jack, there is no acknowledgment of his death in the article or anywhere in the issue.  He had been interviewed, which contributes to most of the content.  

Anyway, it's a nice feature, and I don't think I'd heard before that he briefly played live with Coltrane.    

[Holy Ghost]

On 11/8/2025 at 11:01 AM, Daniel A said:

I like Jack's groove on this one:

 

 

Digging this for all the right reasons! 

On 11/8/2025 at 3:43 PM, felser said:

Same here.  'One Step Beyond' is the other one I know would be on my list of 2-3 favorites by him.

Here!

Much love for Jack DeJohnette, posting in the Jackie Mac thread.