Jack DeJohnette (August 9, 1942 – October 26, 2025) was an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer.
Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie, Alice Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, and John Scofield, DeJohnette was inducted into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2007. He won two Grammy Awards and was nominated for six others.
Early life and musical beginnings
DeJohnette was born on August 9, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois, to Jack DeJohnette (1911–2011) and Eva Jeanette DeJohnette (née Wood, 1918–1984). Although of predominantly African-American heritage, he stated that he had some Native American ancestry, specifically Seminole and Crow. He began his musical career as a pianist, studying from age four with Antoinette Rich, the leader of an all-female symphony orchestra in Chicago, and first playing professionally at the age of 14. When Jack was 13, he switched to drums and was taught drumming techniques from a local jazz drummer, Bobby Miller Jr, who lived in the same neighborhood. DeJohnette credits his uncle, Roy Wood Sr. (1915–1995), a Chicago disc jockey and vice president/co-founder of the National Black Network of Black Broadcasters, as his inspiration to play music.
DeJohnette played R&B, hard bop, and avant-garde music in Chicago. He led his own groups in addition to playing with Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell and other eventual core members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (founded in 1965). He also occasionally performed with Sun Ra and his Arkestra, and later in New York as well. In the early 1960s, DeJohnette had the opportunity to sit in for three tunes with John Coltrane and his quintet, an early foray into playing with big-name jazz musicians.
In 1966 DeJohnette moved to New York City, where he became a member of the Charles Lloyd Quartet. A band that recognized the potential influence of rock and roll on jazz, Lloyd's group was where DeJohnette first encountered pianist Keith Jarrett, who would work extensively with him throughout his career. However, DeJohnette left the group in early 1968, citing Lloyd's deteriorating, "flat" playing as his main reason for leaving. While Lloyd's band was where he received international recognition for the first time, it was not the only group DeJohnette played with during his early years in New York, as he also worked with groups including Jackie McLean, Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter, and Bill Evans. DeJohnette joined Evans' trio in 1968, the same year the group headlined the Montreux Jazz Festival and produced the album Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In November 1968, he worked briefly with Stan Getz and his quartet, which led to his first recordings with Miles Davis.
The Miles Davis years
In 1969, DeJohnette left the Evans trio and replaced Tony Williams in Miles Davis's live band. Davis had seen DeJohnette play many times, one of which was during a stint with Evans at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London in 1968, where he also first heard bassist Dave Holland. Davis recognized DeJohnette's ability to combine the driving grooves associated with rock and roll with improvisational aspects associated with jazz.
DeJohnette was the primary drummer on Bitches Brew. DeJohnette and the other musicians saw the Bitches Brew sessions as unstructured and fragmentary, but also innovative: "As the music was being played, as it was developing, Miles would get new ideas ... He'd do a take, and stop, and then get an idea from what had just gone on before, and elaborate on it ... The recording of Bitches Brew was a stream of creative musical energy. One thing was flowing into the next, and we were stopping and starting all the time." While he was not the only drummer involved in the project, as Davis had also enlisted Billy Cobham, Don Alias, and Lenny White, DeJohnette was considered the leader of the rhythm section within the group. He played on the live albums that would follow the release of Bitches Brew, taken from concerts at the Fillmore East in New York and Fillmore West in San Francisco. These ventures were undertaken at the behest of Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records.
DeJohnette continued to work with Davis for the next three years, which led to collaborations with other Davis band members John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, and Holland; he also drew Keith Jarrett into the band. DeJohnette contributed to such Davis albums as Live-Evil (1971), Jack Johnson (1971), and On the Corner (1972), along with sessions later released on the 1981 compilation album Directions. He left the Davis group in mid-1971, although he returned for several concerts through the rest of that year.
Solo and bandleader in the 1970s and '80s
DeJohnette's first record, The DeJohnette Complex, was released in 1968; on the album, he played melodica as well as drums,
5:13
