Jack DeJohnette obituary

"In improvisational music, ungoverned by conductors or sacrosanct scores, and given to abrupt shifts of direction on the whims of performers, drummers are often the intuitive navigators. One of the most creative and viscerally thrilling exponents of that pivotal jazz art was Jack DeJohnette, the percussionist, pianist, composer and bandleader, who has died aged 83. DeJohnette's CV glitters with the names of the biggest jazz stars of the second half of the 20th century, and with good reason."

"DeJohnette then contributed to Miles Davis's landmark early-1970s electric bands (the trumpet star's improvisations taking off over what he called the drummer's deep groove, which in Davis's inner world meant a tightrope walk between rhythmic precision and unpredictability), but his resourceful subtlety in quieter acoustic settings was never blunted by those heavy-hitting environments. The proof lay in DeJohnette's sensitive accompaniment of two virtuoso jazz pianists Bill Evans, in 1968-69, and Jarrett, in his much-loved Standards Trio from 1983 to 2014."

Jack DeJohnette was a percussionist, pianist, composer and bandleader whose career spanned R&B, free-jazz, jazz-rock fusion, electric Miles Davis bands, and intimate acoustic settings. He began in Chicago, playing alongside AACM founders and occasionally with Sun Ra's Arkestra. He joined Charles Lloyd's celebrated early fusion group and contributed to Miles Davis's landmark early-1970s electric bands, providing a deep groove balancing precision and unpredictability. He accompanied virtuoso pianists Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett in the Standards Trio (1983–2014). He led bands New Directions and Special Edition, recorded horn-dominated albums with David Murray and Arthur Blythe, and toured and recorded as a solo pianist in later years.

Read at www.theguardian.com