Artist: Jack DeJohnette

Jack DeJohnette is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. Known for his extensive work as a 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 has won two Grammy Awards and has been nominated for five others. 

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, where DeJohnette first encountered pianist Keith Jarrett, who would work extensively with him throughout his career. DeJohnette also played with  Jackie McLean, Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter, and Bill Evans. DeJohnette joined Evans' trio in 1968.

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 the Bitches Brew album. 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. 

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. 

DeJohnette's first record, The DeJohnette Complex, was released in 1968. He also recorded, in the early 1970s, the albums Have You Heard, Sorcery, and Cosmic Chicken. 

At the start of the 1980s, DeJohnette played on the album 80/81 with Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden,  Dewey Redman, and Michael Brecker. In 1981, DeJohnette performed at the Woodstock Jazz Festival, held in celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Creative Music Studio. 

In 1990 he toured in a quartet consisting of himself, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, and his long-time collaborator Holland, and released Parallel Realities with this group the same year. In 1992 he released a major collaborative record, Music for the Fifth World, which was inspired by studies with a Native American elder and brought him together.