Jack DeJohnette, Towering Jazz Drummer and Bandleader, Dies at 83

"Jack DeJohnette, the jazz drummer, pianist, and bandleader who played on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and worked closely with Sonny Rollins, Keith Jarrett, and many other jazz luminaries, has died. His longtime label ECM Records confirmed the news, and his personal assistant told The Guardian the cause of death was congestive heart failure. DeJohnette was 83 years old. Born in Chicago, in 1942, DeJohnette grew up in a mostly segregated neighborhood, raised primarily by his grandmother and poet mother."

"Kicked out of high school for skipping class, he took up serious music study and played with a local quintet specializing in Thelonious Monk and Art Blakey arrangements. When his grandmother died, he bought a car, a drum set, and a Wurlitzer electric piano and hustled solo keyboard gigs at Chicago bars, practicing in the daytime for three hours apiece on the drums and piano."

Jack DeJohnette was a Chicago-born drummer, pianist, and bandleader who played on Miles Davis' Bitches Brew and collaborated with Sonny Rollins and Keith Jarrett. He recorded foundational releases for ECM Records and sustained a sprawling, influential career across multiple instruments and ensembles. He grew up in a mostly segregated Chicago neighborhood raised by his grandmother and poet mother and began piano study at about five or six with extensive early exposure to jazz records. He played in student dance bands, studied music seriously after leaving high school, practiced intensively on drums and piano, and hustled solo gigs in Chicago bars. He died at age 83 from congestive heart failure.

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