JACK DeJOHNETTE - Drummer, Pianist, Composer - Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Keith Jarrett, John Coltrane

always have a positive intention when you come on stage play because the music has a power to help uplift people lift their spirits so you know you have that intention it certainly goes out into the area you playing [Music] Jack thanks so much for joining us yes pleasure to be yeah this is so exciting we go back many many years and I've had the chance to hear you perform at such intense concerts and performances we've had the chance of doing clinics together in performance yeah and every time I hear you play it is like a lesson in opening up my mind I heard you once play a 45-minute drum solo about a thousand people in the audience and everyone was on the edge of their seat because they didn't know what was gonna happen next so it was kind of like expect the unexpected and it was a lesson in creativity that I'll never forget because it was just so exciting and 45 minutes went by really fast thank you so much for joining us you are at such a high level Jack of performance and artistic expression we're did music enter your life at the beginning in my life when I was four through the influence of my uncle Roy Wood who himself was big jazz man yeah sure sure so I used to listen to a lot of his records when I was four or five and this is the Tommy Dorsey and Duke Ellington actually we had a Victrola you know the patrollers uh of the old windup today we had a big one - a professional you know big console yeah but I liked it it was one of those that were you open you could store the records and open up covered and the sound would get bigger yes anyway but I fell in love with jazz music you know at that particular age not knowing that's what it was yes I was just drawn to the music then and then I started taking piano lessons piano I took because my grandmother knew a piano teacher who told her that I had perfect pitch my grandmother bought a spinet piano for me and then I started taking lessons my first my first piano lessons not happening [Laughter] an old crotchety PIR on our teacher who smacked my hands when I did play the right note and I was really really not happy but my grandmother had a friend who the driver corner who was using modern you know for those times I guess techniques to help you know young people read music she would give like scores where you play the pieces or maybe a dessert you know if you play an extra so she motivate you yeah yeah she so so I started learning to read and play you know classical pieces so at this time you're still kind of hearing jazz music yeah I'm still driven but I'm seeing everything there too country western music and on the radio gospel music yeah so there was a lot of music around my mother wrote poetry and she wrote songs so there was music always around when I was about 11 or 12 you know rock and roll came out to see ya people like Fats Domino what happened also I like to sing I was sitting in a doo-wop group so saying acapella how cool and then my uncle became a jazz DJ needless to say I got a you know I had access to all these great records without Blakey and Max Roach and all of the jazz greats so I immediately was hooked you know on that music is that what brought into drums drums came as a result I mean I'm developing as a pianist yeah and so when I went to high school there was a saxophone player who was into Charlie Parker wanted to form a group and I said man you gotta listen to Charlie Parker was my uncle had all these records yeah and so I had started listening to Charlie Parker players are claimed that we had a high school band which I play bass acoustic bass double bass for after semester and switch to the percussion Department playing bass drum snare drum we also had practice rooms so there was a clarinet player who played bass and a flutist who played drums and we would get together out great jam sessions you know they'll be at the school yeah high school yeah vocational school yeah yeah was playing like how much Jamal you know compositions and there was a great jazz scene in Chicago Chicago a lot of mixture of John wasn't music yeah yeah yeah so you know I played functions and you know polkas Wallace's and bar mitzvahs so still playing piano still playing groups all different types of gigs yeah the finally drummer from one of my combos left his drums in my house I spent about a month on him you know I was drawn to them but to know how really naturally they appealed to me so I spent about a month on the the drums playing with records they get the 26 rudiments and practice in those came to me naturally you know I sort of you know the coordination and everything just came to me naturally so I decided to develop the drums up to the level of my piano how great so I got a lot of experience working with the really really seasoned musicians yeah that knew more than me but but sort of took me on their wing saw that I had some some talent to offer and you know I made it a point to put myself in those situations that challenged me and helped me develop fantastic and it's amazing how how often sometimes piano and drumming there's a lot of great drummers at there that also play piano there seems to be a real you know relationship there well why shouldn't there be because it's part of percussion family yeah absolutely absolutely so maybe some of the independence and ability came from that people sometimes have tendency to separate yeah I get quite quite often you can ask well what's the difference of Victorian playing drums at the PR agency you do use four limbs with the piano I mean not as often as you do yeah yeah but using the fingers but you're also playing rhythm yeah you know the use of percussion with the piano as drunk as you you can I can name a few pianist not to me or drummers you know like chick herbie chick plays really yeah yeah yeah and Keith played drums interesting runs all over Cabo they had the sense of percussion yeah and then corporate at him so one one feeds the other really you know it the piano for it's all coastal range but the drums also because you know we have the the drum set a Soviet tune these jobs yeah the various pitches according to the music yeah yeah I'm always hearing Orchestra Lee when I play the drum set so that and cymbals which you know over the years I've come to design with sabians yeah you got incredible line so you know in the symbol says Orchestra sounds you know you have the low Cong sound and then you have the overtones yeah and times of your chords and so I'm I'm always here in the orchestra so you could say that at the pianos and or the orchestral sound is part of our concept interesting I kind of explains when you when you're playing a solo you really are laying down this orchestration composition that's that is that probably what sucks people in here and be involved is fantastic so you're working at this time you're playing with different musicians is this are you now you know at a professional level where you're making an income from playing music yeah this is in Chicago I was playing with different artists like Eddie Harris yeah I result Eddie Harris is the one who I subbed for Harold Jones yeah who was then his drums and who was finishing his degree studies at Roosevelt and Eddie knew I played piano and he said to me yeah Jackie play piano you know he's played good good decent Peter and I said but drums he said you're naturally said and it sooner or later you have to make a decision which one was going to be a voice hmm he says because I put a trombone I played the era No and he did he played all these estimates he said but they don't make the saxophone my main instrument the beginners main voice yeah interesting so he said but if you make drums upon an instrument you got to go forward you know I said okay that's like a mentor oh it's it almost like he was mentoring you at that time you know well yes I mean he was one of the mentors in other other mentor was mu hall Richard Abrams who just recently passed and he was involved in a very broad aspect of composition and improvisational music and he had what was called was the forerunner to the ACM the Association for the Advancement of creative musicians in Chicago and he had an experimental orchestra which I was a part of and a lot of other musicians were part of Joseph John and Roscoe Mitchell just to name a few yeah every threat deal and so he had this Orchestra and smaller groups came out of that well and so he encouraged us to you know to write on music to present the music in a way that was on a very fine level and he encouraged me also to go to New York and you know he his door was always open for musicians to come in and beauty you know ask questions and feel advice you know not only musical but you know personal as well deep very deep we're doing any composition at that time were you composing well started to write I started writing more when after I came to New York yeah I was a bandleader I formed groups our trios I had quartets and I accompanied singers and playing solo piano so I did a variety of you know variety of things and there was tons of places to sit in there was oh there was an incredible amount of deep for that so you had a chance to play and sit in with John Coltrane yeah what was that like and how old you at the time okay so you in your late teens yeah but I was a big fan of country and you know I've been playing with the records and in the copy was playing and it was place called McKee Fitzhugh's he was a DJ he owned this jazz club it was one of those railroad like a railroad car yeah well it was a railroad bar you know it's like you know it was long and then there was the booths and bar chairs and then there was a mirror so the musicians could see themselves you know when they were playing there was a small state and there was a spinet piano out there and how was late for the last set and I would play the jam sessions there on the Monday nights and so the place was packed the key said to John is that doesn't you know it's packed it's the last set and it Jack kitchen that he's a good drummer you know go play this is my set with you and Coltrane just a lot of his head went up to the bandstand never ask how good is he or can he play but there was this trust yeah and so I was able to hold my own yeah playing with him but I ever really highlight of my my life for the career then yes when I played with him he was like a magnet yeah when you close it when he plays you could feel and I really don't disturbed why I opened had to play the way interesting as much as you could give him heat just like a spongy just soaked up there I needed that got fired you know from the drum yeah to push him and it you know it was in turned it was a reciprocal yeah with him Alvin what an incredible opportunity to have that just just to have that clarity of where jazz was out at that time to be thrown into that situation oh yeah that's that's a game-changer well it really fueled my confidence and my abilities to be a better musician yeah so now you make the move down to New York what was it like when you first got here well when I first got here I just came up with my Trump said on the Greyhound bus and set of Grich great pearl drums cymbals no cases and I checked in at the Sloane house YMCA went uptown to mittens and Freddie Hubbard was playing there and I thought every Freddie there being an initiation Freddie called just one of those things that I'm Max Roach temple with Charlie Parker up tempo yeah you know but then I'd practice with those records so I was prepared for after I finish to John Paton the organist was in the house and he said to me he said man if you have the set of drums and you got a gig that easy that's where I first decided I was going to stay in New York then I moved downtown Charles tall over who was a trumpeter yeah composer that big work to be Jackie McLean I just you know go around and sit in a lot of different places Charles told me he said listen you know Charles and I had spent a lot of time and jam together and he said he'd been working with Jackie McLean hmm he said then Jackie's gonna hire you he's gonna call you you know and I said oh sure enough I got a call from Jackie to work with him yeah at the time the group was it was very really Bobby Hutchison beautiful you know so we did some gigs around New York and travel some I remember one experience attracted McLean was very kind to me in the sense that I was playing too loud and it was during the time a lot of Germans are influences by over and the volume that he plays yeah I was playing you know louder than I should have been and so on the break Jack Jackie called me a scientist exactly can you stand you hear me when you play at that volume and you know I wasn't talking if all of myself as well yeah I couldn't you said well I don't know he said you might want to play down a little more so here you know what I'm playing well I say he's kind he could have just said man you know he could have just get the hell out of here you know he told me that I walked off and then I calmed down so when I next time when I went up I played more finessing more taste and so I never forgot that for these lessons seemed like they were they were being given to you this is university education that's happening on the job oh yeah it's that intense but it seems like you were really prepared when they call certain tempos so you were putting time into your instrument playing all to record so your technique in your chops and your ability and your focus you were prepared ya know I spent many hours yeah many hours you know playing with the records working on my technique yeah go on the sessions yeah playing as much as possible it's a P the best I could be whether any drummers that you took lessons from at all or that you that you got together with Oh Clifford javis show me some thumb techniques did for sticking agency that were useful sometimes talking about rudiments and things like that yeah the third word rudiments for me was I wanted not to sound rudimental but I wanted to utilize it's not deceptive but did you know I used a lot of singles double 7-elevens yeah flam's double Stowe grows you know into lace with bass drum yeah yeah so it's sorted it flows you know flows a lot so it doesn't sound more I'm marching drums you know oh it's not stiff at all verticals yeah there's less it more more of flooring yeah yeah well liquid a liquid way and you see you know your fluidity when you're playing it always amazed because you would it didn't matter what hands or what feet or what sound you were looking for if you wanted something happening between your left hand and your right foot it just kind of happened you just kind of like it's almost like your will bit that way it just it just happens so relaxed and so fluid so a lot of that came from just playing along to records and just listening to other players playing as much as possible yeah and the energy that flows through me was pretty high energy yeah because I got that from seeing people like miles and Coltrane and some of the musicians in Chicago that I played with you know IRA Sullivan yes John Gilmore yeah Sunhwa so I was you know had these they're all these different people who played the music on such a such a high level you know I just wanted to be the best I could be a I never imagined I would wind up playing with these people I played with you know I owned the records yeah yeah how amazing but what's amazing is that you you you were constantly doing this research and then all of a sudden how did Miles step into the picture and how did that lead into brew had that well there for miles came into the pictures we have to look at I was freelancing around New York and I played with Eddie Carter p11 for the Leben's you know Freddie Hubbard but miles I had an opportunity to play with miles before I officially joined him and there was a time when Tony was unavailable to work with miles miles had come around to slugs you know that was on the Lower East Side Jazz Club there and I was playing for Jackie McLean and and it was actually - Jackie McLean that Tony Williams got the job with miles because of Jackie hired Tony and miles hunter Tony miles came down to hear me play in Jackie said to me my house is gonna hire you we got the same taste in dramas yeah that's the miles miles heard you there and yeah and so I got to call with Herbie Wayne yeah Carter what was that like we had Ron here doing a talk of him and it's just it's just so deep to hear some of the stories and then all these names that you're mentioning as part of what I like about the series of these younger musicians listening to as you mentioned these names I want them to do the research and you know Sunhwa go do the research of who these great musicians either and and have them do their homework for it uh-huh so you hook up with Miles now you you're playing how did brew come into the into the picture well this was around the time you know we were talking about Jimi Hendrix yeah so Hendrix was around that time and I believe then the atmosphere for experimentation in music in a lot of the different genres it was going across and over yeah yeah and we had there FM stations or now that you know was the new frontier so to say yes so to speak yeah yeah this was a period of creativity in the recording studio with Miles where he gathered you know his favorite musicians on a prospective instruments like drums and Reed's bass percussion and of course his producer tioman cell it was underrated for the production no contributions he made to miles as a music yeah organizing it so miles was in a creative mood of process of utilizing a studio to go in every day and experiment with grooves and a lot of the music is not that structure yeah you know in terms of like ABC form yeah yeah form there so it's a matter of groups and sometimes a few notes or few melodies and when the groove got right I mean you know he turned the tape on and just let it roll and when it got right he would cue our soloists in and then take it out and so the tape would just be rolling so documented in the working progress so days and days days of this you know just would go off you never thought about how important that recommend these records would be yeah it was just you know it was important because miles was there yeah it's he was you know moving forward with something different and his concept if you listened to it a lot of it was the simplicity of the music but the groove the grooves or what's happening and then he was utilizing acoustic and electric and electric it was in the grooves was just so deep it was just such a and you could kind of feel everyone speaking to each other within the music well that process really you know a lot of the pop groups that's what they did mmm but they spent even longer time yeah you know plan it groove over and over and over it babysat yeah in the right place but this is a little different in terms of getting that spontaneity as the group is developing yeah that capturing it on recordings and then the entertaining putting it together so it told the story mmm you know and the best way possible you know what classic music that that was it's just it's just around forever and still is fresh now as it was back in the 60s which is which is really powerful what we're still playing piano at the time were you're doing some composition at the time yeah I was playing the piano but not working with it I just use it in terms of writing yeah and I hadn't made a recording as a leader until I guess 68 or 69 yeah or the milestone right label with the Orang keep news right but I did I forgot to mention and coming up in Chicago I like to play a wind instrument which was the melodica yeah which I used to go around and play and sit in in sessions because it gave me another way of expression you know with the air that you were in a way of speaking that you can do with the piano so I used to go sit in and then got a lot of experience playing with the melodica and I used it in New York and using it on some compositions well actually my first record here took me a year before I was ready to record yes I said well think about what it is you want to do and didn't come back to me so I wanted to utilize my my keyboard skills I also wanted to have Roy Haynes who I met when I first came to New York he was kind of like a mentor to me it wasn't like a mentor to me we used to go around and hang out and listen to music and sometimes sit in together him me playing order and or piano I really had a lot of respect for horizontal um yeah so I asked him would he play drums so my record so what I did was I had been he mopping on tenor saxophone for Stanley kala piano look Christy piano electric yeah and then two bases and it Gomez and I'm their stall vetos you know so I figure out a way to write music that he utilize this so well so it was very excited it was challenging it was very excited with the blend of the saxophone and the melodica worked out pretty well and and then playing melodica with Roy Haynes was a hell of a challenge because Roy at the time was you know he would always overlap barline Soleil accents deliberately yeah on and three or in the usual places Barry yeah yeah you want you want either know where you were so you could throw it all so this it was good for me that the ground myself to know where I was I mean of course I did the same with every when I was playing but ya know there's one thing you you're throwing it out you're receiving it right where do you think your creativity comes from they get as long as I've known you you've always been at this creative force we do you think that comes from I was saying that I said it comes from or the library of creative consciousness you tap into that which we all have the facility ability to do the possibilities are endless yeah this is all so easy you can also get stuck yeah where you just do it or what you know and you're comfortable with and I do like to put myself in in situations where I'm coming up with you know fresh ideas yeah and even now I feel like there's things I need to work on to move out of things that I'm comfortable doing yeah you have to push yourself so you're still you're still challenging yourself yeah are there young musicians that you're starting to see that you know like like a lot of these these elders that saw you're playing are you starting to see some young musicians that have special ability and talent that's inspiring yeah well you know Roy's grandson Marcus Gilmore yeah really really happening Chris gave you yes but not really got some yeah yeah sure yeah no mark you are truly a mark Julianna but it's amazing that you mentioned that mark is a young talented you know really enthusiastic jazz artists that's really kind of pushing the edge also yeah yeah now she waits oh yeah yeah yeah so this is a good that's a good you know level of lineage that's carrying on a lot of this a lot of this intensity of jazz now yes but that city probably some more I mean yeah yeah that I've been I've heard some amazing young drummers I mean it's to drop the part because you're doing really well yeah the biggest problem I see is this is so much talent how you know how they're gonna you know survive and work and make a new yeah yeah and in this environment how everything is streamed or downloaded yeah yeah yeah there was a video that I saw of you and Roy Haynes tap-dancing trading some trading some fours and some eights was tap a part of your how did that come into play well that's an interesting question because I used to play out reviews you know there would be tap dancers yeah yeah but I didn't get really into deeper the deeper aspect of it until I started to experience Savion Glover who I actually first started playing with him when he was 16 he had a concert at Carnegie Hall Jared Allen was a pianist Rob yeah Carter was our base and Savion was going through playing tribute to the legends you know Sam and Jimmy Slyde the great tap dancers but to me tapping drums you know good at the hip because the you know they're doing rudiments absolutely it's it's the same that sister so it's a percussion discussion absolutely a production discussion and then later Savion sees himself as a soloist like a horn player he sees himself that way yeah and he's when I saw him I called him the John Coltrane of tap because he does phenomenal things yeah rhythmically and then you know what the moves yeah everything is really concentrated the feet but he is a way of setting up the stage with the mics in different places where he can get pitches he's different how amazing Michaels Sonic temple pitches yeah from his drunk and so when I've I play something pitch wise to changing that you put it back with a lot of call and response yeah and a lot of accompanying each other yeah well I want so long as the other one doesn't and then a collective improvisation you know the connections it's immediate and it goes from zero to 200 whenever we get together yeah what's funny is that these these players like Roy Haynes and Buddy Rich and Steve Gadd at big Panda they really were great tap dancers and it seems like there's that there's a and almost an importance to understand tap to better understand the fluidity of drumset well the correlation yeah is there in since that Savion is an excellent drummer yeah yeah you know at the soundcheck speaking your I place a play I know whether he plays a draw but you know he worked he did something that was really amazing that Lydia and I went to see him play in Albany it was called classical Savion and for those who haven't seen it they should really see it I got it was amazing because he had a string section there and they had to all know how to improvise and he was doing Bob Mozart really and tapping it happened to hear you know there were kids of all ages and it was really there to educated in the audience with something that you know most people knew yeah works and then he would introduce the players by tapping something to him and add their answer back in an improvisation and then he at the end I brought a you know jazz rhythm section and putting there some jazz of propositions with the orchestra but you see this sort of this thread showing now he would tap literally tap the notes some Mozart I mean it happened you know with Finch Ensemble and when we first got there we thought oh well let's see what and then after about five minutes here like it Steve I could imagine yeah and so you know he's like at the cutting edge and he's you know educating people you know about top still you know you know he's giving it a more visibility yeah bring on the noise bring on the funk yeah but you know he's a definitely trailblazer that pleasure working with him I mean he's out now working with Marcus Gilmore they just but he won't he's done things of him caught Einar and it's done things with Roy yeah so he keeps it you know putting himself in different different situations so it's amazing that you you keep yourself exposed so all this here informed about all this this information you know that's that really is is a part of the magic of what creates checked is your net for sure we have we have all these young listeners that are listening to hear and and there are some you know incredible enthusiastic musicians out there mm-hmm in closing what would you say to this next generation Jack that could could give them advice and and hope to follow their dreams and music well first of all love what you're doing yeah have fun with it listen they're as much different types of music as you can and ask questions and try and play with musicians and more experienced than you always have a positive intention when you come on stage and play because the music has a power to help uplift people yeah lift their spirits up so you know you have that intention it certainly you know definitely goes out into the area you're playing in joy mm which is a very important yeah to pick the joy of the music because right now more than ever we need that yeah well said yeah just keep that keep that spirit and make sure that you you know even though it's your profession that you still find farther with it so the boat becomes a job yeah you know it's your art and it's a way of living your way of making a living but keep those keep that in perspective beautiful beautiful way love I love that positive intention that really is a very very two powerful words put together that's beautiful yeah and if there's ever a an endless library of creative consciousness you are the one that has that owns the library keeps I know and I think you do I share some of it you do show a lot of other people you do that so well man Jack on behalf of your out a series of the sessions we thank you so much okay thank you so so much Fanta [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The Sessions Panel

Views: 37,625

Rating: 4.9514923 out of 5

Keywords: TheSessionsPanel, Sessions*Music, Business*Music, Education*Drum*Drummer*Music, History*Musicology*Legend*, Dom Famularo, Artist Series, Entertainment law, Music Education, Jules Follett, Interviews, Musicians, The Sessions, Jack DeJohnette, Drum, Pianist, Composer

Id: lK8RImNCbQ4

Length: 37min 50sec (2270 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 29 2019