Jack DeJohnette Has Passed Away At 83
The legendary jazz drummer played on Miles Davis’ jazz fusion classics among many other noteworthy releases.
Jack DeJohnette, the Grammy-winning drummer whose work as a bandleader and sideman made him one of the titans of modern jazz, has died. DeJohnette passed away Monday in Woodstock, New York from congestive heart failure. He was 83.
DeJohnette built up a towering body of work across nearly six decades, working alongside talents including Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie, Alice Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, John Scofield, and many more. But he may be best known for playing on the pioneering jazz fusion albums Miles Davis released in the early 1970s.
On massively influential titles like Bitches Brew and On the Corner, DeJohnette served as the head of Davis’ rhythm section, applying his loose, freewheeling style to music that hybridized jazz with rock, funk, and R&B. “I think playing with Miles, with Dave Holland, Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter was a very exciting period,” DeJohnette has said of his time playing in Davis’ band from 1969 to 1971. “We always couldn’t wait to get on the bandstand to see what kind of mischief we could get into.”
Born in Chicago in 1942, DeJohnette first took to piano as a child. But at age 13, he switched to drums, and by 14 he was performing live. After stints in a vocal group and a rock band, he planted his flag in the world of jazz, where he found the most freedom to pursue his adventurous musical instincts.
After moving to New York in 1966, DeJohnette joined the Charles Lloyd Quartet, an early adopter in incorporating rock influence into jazz. His time in the band introduced him to pianist Keith Jarrett, one of his closest collaborators over the years, who he’d recruit into Davis’ band. While establishing himself as a masterful sideman, DeJohnette began to make his mark as a bandleader as well, releasing his debut album The DeJohnette Complex in 1968.
DeJohnette’s career remained prolific across the decades, including a sustained run of brilliance for ECM Records starting in the 1980s. His playing won him the respect of his peers and jazz listeners everywhere, and eventually institutional recognition followed. DeJohnette won two Grammys and was nominated for more. He also received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music in 1990 and was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2007.
DeJohnette was first married to Deirdre Davenport, his college classmate in Chicago. In 1966 he met his second wife, Lydia, backstage at a show in London. They had two daughters, Farah and Minya.
