JACK DEJOHNETTE
rarum XIV: Selected Recordings
ECM
Jack DeJohnette has remained one of jazz music’s most
imaginative and inexhaustible drummers since his arrival
on the scene as a member of Charles Lloyd’s quartet.
The seeds of much of DeJohnette’s career were contained
in that band. Lloyd’s group was flexible and open
to influences from outside the insular jazz world, which
certainly influenced the drummer’s overall musical
outlook in years to come. In addition, keyboard player Keith
Jarrett was a member of the same ensemble, and the two musicians’
careers became entwined to an essential degree over the
years, in many different collaborations. As a member of
Jarrett’s famous standards trio for the past 20 or
so years, DeJohnette has been one third of one of the most
influential and beloved ensembles since the original Bill
Evans trio. His rarum collection is a fantastic opportunity
to sample the wide variety of music in which this drummer
has been a creative force.
“As a child I listened to all kinds
of music and I never put them into categories” says
Dejohnette of his varied work. “I studied classical
piano and listened to opera, country and western music,
rhythm and blues, jazz, swing, whatever. To me it was all
music and great. I’ve kept that integrated feeling
about music, all types of music, and just carried it with
me, and I’ve maintained that feeling in spite of this
habitual attempt to try and keep people pinned down to a
certain style.”
Basically, DeJohnette’s rarum entry
covers the latter half of the 1970s through 1984, with one
track from 1971 and two from the 90s. The leadoff track,
“Third World Anthem” comes from the 1984 release
Album Album by Jack DeJohnette’s Special
Edition. DeJohnette and bassist Rufus Reid hold down the
rhythm section on this jaunty piece with an island folk
melody feel—something like a breezy Albert Ayler.
Saxophonists John Purcell and David Murray, along with tuba
player Howard Johnson, provide the front line of the group,
and it does sound like some kind of South American marching
band, full of optimism and ebullient good spirits. “Jack
In” fast forwards to 1997 and comes from DeJohnette’s
album Oneness. Dejohnette plays drums and interacts
with percussionist Don Alias to provide the basis for guitarist
Jerome Harris and pianist Michael Cain. It’s a very
‘cool’ piece that slowly unfolds to reveal a
high energy groove at its core that is sustained by DeJohnette
and Alias. “Feelbes, Fables, and Ferns” is from
guitarist Mick Goodrick’s album In Passing,
recorded in 1978. Goodrick is joined by DeJohnette, bassist
Eddie Gomez, and woodwind player John Surman, who has also
collaborated with DeJohnette a few times. The piece is a
great example of interactive ensemble playing, and DeJohnette
likely included it because it demonstrates his ability to
provide color and depth to a piece.
The earliest track on the disc is a duet with
Jarrett taken from the album Rutta and Daitya.
“Overture/Communion” is also notable for featuring
Jarrett at the electric piano, an instrument he abandoned
after his stint with Miles Davis’ high-powered electric
band. Beginning meditatively, the piece soon moves into
familiar Jarrett gospel-influenced territory, with the pianist
applying a wah-wah pedal to draw some sounds from his Fender
Rhodes that still sound righteously funky today.
The disc’s second half begins with the
hypnotic “How’s Never” from the Gateway
trio album Homecoming. Bassist Dave Holland also
included this track, one of his compositions, on his rarum
collection, and it is a perfect slice of groove-driven
funk that is a highlight of all three participants’
(John Abercrombie is the guitarist) recorded careers. “Silver
Hollow” comes from DeJonette’s 1978 recording
New Directions. It features DeJohnette the composer
and pianist along with Abercrombie on guitar, Eddie Gomez
on bass, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Lester
Bowie in an especially beautiful muted trumpet performance.
DeJohnette’s piano work is open-chorded and his work
here bears the influence of Jarrett, but also pays homage
to other pianists as well. There’s certainly no sense
of ‘piano as a second instrument.’ When DeJohnette
sits down at the instrument he approaches it with the same
level of inventiveness and intensity as he does the drums.
DeJohnette concludes his rarum picks with
two pieces from his album Pictures, recorded in
1976. “Picture 5” is a duet between DeJohnette
and John Abercrombie on acoustic guitar. The piece has a
Spanish flair and Abercrombie plays quite percussively,
underlining DeJohnette’s punctuation, which eventually
coalesces into a somewhat martial step. “Picture 6”
features DeJohnette on piano and percussion, and it again
reminds the listener that Jack DeJohnette, though known
primarily as a drummer, is a consummate musician, bandleader,
and composer who plays a variety of instruments and whose
creativity seemingly acknowledges no boundaries.
