Jack DeJohnette boasted a musical resume that was as long as it was fearsome.
(Photo: Steven Sussman)Oct 28, 2025 10:47 AM
Jack DeJohnette, a bold and resourceful drummer and NEA Jazz Master who forged a unique vocabulary on the kit over his 60-year career, died Oct. 26 at a hospital in Kingston, New…
Jack DeJohnette has never been willing to sit still long enough to be categorized.
(Photo: DownBeat Archive)Oct 28, 2025 10:16 AM
Editor’s Note: Jack DeJohnette is the kind of percussionist who might appear on any given night behind a major artist and, by so doing, raise the level of group interplay about seven notches. Such was the case at Newport ’74 when he showed up quite unexpectedly behind Freddie Hubbard at Carnegie Hall. All of a sudden a formerly ho-hum rhythm section was transformed into one of high excitement, distinctive originality and exquisite empathy.
But Jack DeJohnette is far more than just a drummer who sits in someone else’s band, or even someone who…
