Jack DeJohnette was born on August 9, 1942, and passed away on October 26, 2025. He was an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. He worked with many famous musicians as a leader and supporting musician, including Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie, Ralph Towner, Alice Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny, Herbie Hancock, and John Scofield. In 2007, he was placed into the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame. He won two Grammy Awards and was considered for six others. The Times stated that as a drummer, few could match his skill or energy. He led more than 35 albums under his own name.
Life and career
DeJohnette was born in Chicago, Illinois, on August 9, 1942, to Jack DeJohnette (1911–2011), a laborer, and Eva Jeanette DeJohnette (née Wood, 1918–1984). He is mostly of African-American heritage but has some Native American ancestry, including Seminole and Crow. His parents moved to California for work, and he was raised by his grandmother, Rosalie Ann Wood. He grew up in a musical home, and his mother, who returned to Chicago without his father, is said to have written the jazz song "Stormy Monday" and sold it for $50.
DeJohnette had perfect pitch and began his musical career as a pianist. He started studying piano at age 4 with Antoinette Rich, who led an all-female symphony orchestra in Chicago. He first played professionally at 14 years old. In school, he sang lead tenor in a doo-wop group and played acoustic bass in a dance band. At 13, he switched to drums but still considered piano his main instrument. He played in Chicago clubs and learned drumming from a local jazz drummer, Bobby Miller Jr., who lived nearby. He practiced three hours on drums and three hours on piano each day. His uncle, Roy Wood Sr. (1915–1995), a Chicago jazz disc jockey and co-founder of the National Black Network, inspired him to play music. He introduced DeJohnette to jazz and took him to clubs.
DeJohnette played R&B, hard bop, and avant-garde music in Chicago. He led his own groups and played with musicians like Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell, and others who later became part of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (founded in 1965). He also occasionally played drums for the Sun Ra Arkestra and later in New York. He graduated from Chicago Vocational School in 1961 and was already well-known in Chicago’s jazz clubs. One night, when John Coltrane’s band was playing at a club, the drummer was late, and DeJohnette played for three songs to replace him.
In 1966, DeJohnette moved to New York City and joined the Charles Lloyd Quartet, a band that blended rock and roll with jazz. There, he met pianist Keith Jarrett, who worked with him for nearly 40 years. He left the group in early 1968 because he felt Lloyd’s playing had declined. During his time in New York, he also worked with musicians like Jackie McLean, Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter, and Bill Evans. He joined Evans’ trio in 1968, the same year the group performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival and recorded the album Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival. In November 1968, he briefly played with Stan Getz’s quartet, leading to his first recordings with Miles Davis.
In 1969, DeJohnette replaced Tony Williams in Miles Davis’s live band. Davis had seen DeJohnette perform many times, including during a stint with Evans in London in 1968, where he also met bassist Dave Holland. Davis recognized DeJohnette’s ability to combine rock and roll rhythms with jazz improvisation. DeJohnette was the main drummer on the album Bitches Brew, recorded in 1969 and released in 1970. He and the other musicians saw the sessions as unstructured but innovative. They described the music as a continuous flow of creative energy, with frequent stops and starts. DeJohnette was not the only drummer on the project, as Davis also used Billy Cobham, Don Alias, and Lenny White. However, DeJohnette was considered the leader of the rhythm section. He played on live albums recorded from concerts at the Fillmore East and Fillmore West, which were suggested by Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records.
DeJohnette worked with Davis for three more years, collaborating with musicians like John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, and Dave Holland. He also brought Keith Jarrett into the band. He contributed to Davis’s albums such as Live-Evil (1971), Jack Johnson (1971), and On the Corner (1972), and later sessions released on the 1981 compilation Directions. DeJohnette left the Davis group in mid-1971 but returned for several concerts later that year. His recordings with Miles Davis helped shape modern jazz and introduced a new style of funk-infused jazz-rock.
DeJohnette’s first album as a band leader, The DeJohnette Complex, was released in 1968. He played drums and melodica on the album, often allowing his mentor, Roy Haynes, to sit behind the drum kit. In the early 1970s, he recorded Have You Heard, Sorcery, and Cosmic Chicken. These albums were released on Milestone or Prestige labels, and he later switched to ECM, which provided a platform for his atmospheric drumming and complex compositions. He also appeared on First Light, an album by trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, released by CTI in 1971.
The freedom DeJohnette had while recording for ECM allowed him to work as a sideman and form his own groups. He created the group Compost in 1972, but it was short-lived due to its experimental nature. During this time, he also played with Stan Getz’s quartet from 1973 to 1974 and brought Dave Holland into Getz’s rhythm section. This experience led to the formation of the Gateway Trio, a group DeJohnette helped create but did not lead. The trio included guitarist John Abercrombie, who later worked with DeJohnette. DeJohnette’s next group, Directions, formed in 1976, included saxophonist Alex Foster, bassist Mike Richmond, and Abercrombie, showing connections to the Gateway Trio. This group was short-lived but led to the creation of New Directions, which featured Abercrombie again, Lester Bowie on trumpet, and Eddie Gómez on bass.
DeJohnette also led a group called Special Edition, which received critical praise. This group helped launch the careers of young musicians, including David Murray, Arthur Blythe, Chico Freeman, and John Purcell. DeJohnette recorded over 35 albums as a band leader, working with musicians like Keith Jarrett, Herbie Hancock, Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny, and Ravi Coltrane.
During this time, especially with Special Edition, DeJohnette balanced complex compositions with traditional jazz structures, offering listeners both avant-garde innovation and disciplined musical arrangements. His work with Special Edition was interrupted.
Style
Jack DeJohnette’s drumming style uses parts of jazz, free jazz, world music, and R&B. He became one of the most respected and sought-after drummers. He first played using traditional grip but later switched to matched grip because of a condition called tendinitis.
His drumming is known for being unique. A critic said he was not just a drummer but also a "percussionist, colorist, and someone who adds short, meaningful comments to the music." His drumming was described as "always part of the music's structure." In a 2004 interview, Modern Drummer magazine said his drumming was "more than just skill." The Times noted that few could match his skill or energy.
DeJohnette called himself an "abstract thinker" when playing solos. He said he focused more on ideas than on specific details, like what he thought in a certain part of a song. He described playing as entering a different mindset, connecting with a place full of ideas. He also said he had to be careful with his playing in Keith Jarrett’s trio to match the music’s subtlety.
Although DeJohnette was best known as a drummer, he was also a formally trained pianist. He began studying piano at age four and later took lessons at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. He played piano and drums early in his career. Later, he returned to piano, releasing solo albums in 1985 (The Jack DeJohnette Piano Album) and 2016 (Return). He also played piano, organ, and synthesizer keyboards on albums where he was a drummer, such as Pictures (1977) and New Directions In Europe (live in concert in 1979, released 1980).
DeJohnette listed Max Roach, Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, Philly Joe Jones, Art Taylor, Rashied Ali, Paul Motian, Tony Williams, and Andrew Cyrille as influences on his drumming. However, he did not like being seen only as a drummer. In a 2000 interview, he confidently said he was "a complete musician."
Private life and death
His first marriage was to Deatra Davenport, but they later divorced. He then married Lydia Herman, who was his wife for 57 years. She managed his career, and together they had two daughters. He passed away on October 26, 2025, in Kingston, New York, due to congestive heart failure at the age of 83.
Awards
- Member of United States Artists (2012)
- NEA Jazz Master (2012)
- Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Skyline, at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards
- Grammy Award for Best New Age Album, Peace Time, at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards
- Six more Grammy Award nominations