Jack DeJohnette, Miles Davis’ drummer on “Bitches Brew,” has died

Drummer Jack DeJohnette, one of the most celebrated in the history of jazz, has died. He was 83 years old.

His death was confirmed by his publisher, ECM Records, and by his personal assistant, to the newspaper “The Guardian”. The musician did not survive a heart attack.

Born in Chicago in 1942, Jack DeJohnette began playing drums as a teenager, starting with the jazz records of his uncle, Roy Wood, who was the first black announcer on a white Chicago radio station, during the time of segregation. Later, he fell in love with Sun Ra’s music, playing a few times with the Arkestra.

The first major peak of his career came in the early 60s when, at a show in Chicago, he replaced drummer Elvin Jones – from John Coltrane’s band – for three songs. “It was an immense physical and spiritual experience,” he told the Smithsonian Museum in 2011.

Still in the 60s, DeJohnette moved to New York, where he worked with names like Keith Jarrett and Cecil McBee in the Charles Lloyd quartet, which became popular among the generation hippie – leading him to perform alongside figures such as Janis Joplin or Jefferson Airplane. His first album as a leader, “The DeJohnette Complex”, was released in 1968, catching the attention of Miles Davis, who invited him to be part of the group that would record the seminal “Bitches Brew”.

Throughout his career, he also worked with Sonny Rollins, Pat Methany or Ravi Coltrane, and won two Grammy awards: one for Best Album New Agefor “Peace Time”, in 2008, and another for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, in 2022, for “Skyline”, in a trio with Gonzalo Rubalcaba and Larry Grenadier.