Sound Travels
Sound Travels
- DEJOHNETTE JACK SOUND TRAVELS
2012 promises to be a banner year for legend Jack DeJohnette, renowned as one of music’s most adventurous artists and prolific drummers. He’ll receive a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Fellowship, the highest U.S. honor for jazz musicians. The Chicago-born, New York-based artist will also turn 70, boasting a top-drawer historical resume that ranges from his early days as a charter member of the Charles Lloyd Quartet and his seminal drumming in Miles Davis’s pioneering fusion band in the late ’60s and early ’70s (including Bitches Brew) to his longstanding quarter-century-plus contributions to the Keith Jarrett Standards Trio as well as his own diverse solo career recording for such labels as ECM, MCA/Impluse!, EMI/Blue Note, and
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Organic, beautiful…what jazz should be.,
All jazz fans knew that Jack DeJohnette is a jazz master long before the NEA bestowed the formal title upon him a couple of weeks ago (and good for them!) But drummer-led albums don’t really appeal to me, so I didn’t plan on checking this out until I heard an interview with Mr. DeJohnette on WBGO, New York’s great jazz station. What a surprise! First of all, he plays the piano on this album as well as the drums and his keyboard solos are lyrical and meditative. Second, there are amazing players on the album, new young voices like Spaulding and Akinmusire and Ries, and also veteran vocalists McFerrin and Hornsby (!). Third, this album is listener-friendly without being condescending. It is accomplished, but feels somehow home-made, like you’re in the studio or even a living room with the players. There’s not a trace of the sort of academic sound that too many jazz records have these days. It’s what I would call “real music.” If you get a chance to hear Jack DeJohnette talk about is music, you also can understand why this music is so warm and generous. He comes from a sadly bygone era in jazz, where there was a sense of adventure and openness in the exploration of music. But this album doesn’t sound old at all…it’s as fresh as right now. Don’t sleep on it.
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|Wonderful melodies ,deep grooves, latin Rhythms and Caribbean pasions,
Filled with Latin rhythms, Caribbean passion merging perfectly with contemplative meditations and some straight ahead jazz, legendary jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette delivers up a disk that feels much younger than his 70 years. There’s even a tune that should light up the album orientated rock stations, the bluesy tune with a 7/4 time signature, “Dirty Ground” with Bruce Hornsby on vocals.
Other co-conspirators in this marvelous work include Bobby McFerrin on vocals and percussion and last years surprise Grammy Winner, Esperanza Spalding on acoustic and electric bass as well as an improv vocal on one tune. Joining them are new talents Ambrose Akinmusire on trumpet and Lionel Loueke on guitar, plus jazz main-stays, saxophonist Tim Ries, percussionist Luisito Quintero and on one track pianist Jason Moran.
Perhaps the most influential jazz drummer of the last half of the 20th century, Jack DeJohnette was one of the first drummers to incorporate free jazz and world music into his playing, all the while maintaining that deep groove of jazz and R&B in his style. Consequently, he was drawn to play with some of the greatest players and composers in the post bebop era. He played with Bill Evans in 1968 on the acclaimed Bill Evans at the Montreux Jazz Festival. Then, in `69 he became a mainstay with the Miles Davis group and a key component of Davis’ master piece of fusion, Bitches Brew.
He’s led several groups since the early `70s, including Compost, a jazz-rock group, Directions (with John Abercrombie, Alex Foster, Warren Bernhardt, and Mike Richmond); New Directions (with Abercrombie, Lester Bowie, and Eddie Gomez); Gateway (with John Abercrombie and Dave Holland); and Special Edition (with David Murray, Chico Freeman, Arthur Blythe, Peter Warren, and others). Since the 1980s, he has been a member of what has become known as Keith Jarrett’s Standards Trio alongside Jarrett and Gary Peacock. In 2003 he formed Trio Beyond with Larry Golding on organ, and guitarists John Scofield.The trio is a tribute to the great Tony Williams Lifetime trio. He also plays as a member of the Bruce Hornsby Trio.
This album displays wonderful melodies and deep grooves and DeJohnette composed all the tunes. He also plays piano (his first instrument) on nearly all the tracks and his passion and tenderness are apparent on the two “bookend” lyrical solos that start and end the album. The addition of Esperanza Spalding on some of the tracks is pure genius, and she improvises beautifully over the chord changes in “Salsa For Luisito”.
One other highlight song is “Sonny Light”, a tribute to the great Sonny Rollins. It’s a dance tune dripping in Caribbean rhythms and featuring the nylon-string guitar mastery of Lionel Loueke. And, you’ll enjoy the angular melody of “Indigo Dreamscape” and it’s smooth groove. This is a new arrangement of the tune, first heard on DeJohnette’s 1990 Parallel Realities album which featured Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny. The new arrangement makes room for Spalding on bass and the horn section. It’s a nice track and feels fresh and full of light.
Sound Travels is a welcome addition, and a great present to himself on this milestone birth year. It’ll make you smile, it’ll make you move and it’ll make you relax and forget the troubles in your life and in the world for just a little while.
The Dirty Lowdown
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|Sound travel,
The composition is wonderful as was expected. It could n’t be less better. received in time and is being played repeatedly and enjoyable.
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