We're back with the next BHM post! Tomorrow we will take a break from that, and then Friday we will dive back in the deep end.
Today we have a delectable selection -- taped 44 years ago today, no less -- featuring one of our lifetimes' most versatile and prolific drummers, who is so talented he's also a world class piano player.
He really came into the public consciousness as the drummer for Charles Lloyd's boundary-shattering quartet of the mid-1960s.
A year with piano deity Bill Evans followed, followed by a call from an even more revered bandleader.
By the end of the decade, he was replacing Tony Williams in the band of Miles Davis, just in time for Miles to go fully electric.
He's the primary percussion player on the landmark Bitches' Brew, but I always preferred the follow-up, Live-Evil, in which he supplies volcanically supple grooves that never falter in their molecular merging of Rock drive played with Jazz sensibility.
As the 1970s evolved he started to lead his own sessions, as well as performing on many countless and timeless records that helped define the streams of Seventies Jazz.
Fast forward to now -- he's still going at age 77 -- and you'd have to draw the conclusion that Jack DeJohnette is one of the greatest living drummers.
It's one of these mid-'70s groups, however, that we showcase today, captured from a fresh rebroadcast on Nordwestradio.
Do look out for guitar god John Abercrombie in this, who sets the frets alight with some wild and dazzling solos, and some sizzling saxophony courtesy of Alex Foster.
Jack DeJohnette's Directions
Post-Aula
Bremen, Germany
2.12.1976
01 N.N.
02 Totally Free
03 Flying Spirits
04 Fantastic
Jack DeJohnette - drums & piano
Alex Foster - tenor & alto saxophones
John Abercrombie - guitar
Mike Richmond - bass
Total time: 54:31
digital capture of a 2016 Nordwestradio analog cable FM rebroadcast
announcer towards the end removed by EN, February 2020
328 MB FLAC/February 2020 archive link
I shall return tomorrow with a milestone b'day of someone only tangentially related to Black music, but who deserves the accolades.
Then we will resume those posts on Friday with a real barnburner of an anniversary set, where I branch out from just music and start sharing a more creative aspect of what I like to do.
Today, though, we are all about Jack history month, with this delicious slice of ECM sonority to take you through the evening.--J.
