Jack DeJohnette: Sound Travels (Shock)

 |   |  1 min read

Jack DeJohnette (with Bobby McFerrin): Oneness
Jack DeJohnette: Sound Travels (Shock)

The great jazz drummer -- who turns 70 this year -- shows no signs of either slowing down or repeating himself, and on the evidence of his performance of Miles Davis' tribute to Jack Johnson last year, his energy levels and creativity are also undiminished.

This gentle album finds him exploring Latin styles (with singer/bassist Esmeralda Spalding), working with songwriter and keyboard player Bruce Hornsby (who plays with the Grateful Dead these days) for the country-funky jazz of Dirty Ground, and inviting in Bobby McFerrin for wordless vocals and vocalese on one song (the gentle Oneness).

Also present are his fine touring band which includes hot pianist Jason Moran and guitarist Lionel Louke.

It's a curious album in that it constantly shifts its ground so Dirty Ground is placed between the subtle Salsa for Luisito and the  angular instrumental New Muse which nods to Mexican music and the ethereal (in Tim Ries' soprano playing). The tropical-influenced Sonny Light pays tribute to Sonny Rollins' bright and playful pieces in the same manner but, while pleasant and allowing DeJohnette to play some oblique piano, adds little to the genre.

The title track is engrossing, a minimalist interplay between Loueke's tickling guitar and the rhythm section as Spalding adds discreetly swooping bass. But at less than two minutes you wonder, why? It sounds as if it could have gone somewhere, but . . .

Only on the eight minute Indigo Dreamscape do the players really stretch, but it is also restrained and never hits the energy levels they are capable of live.

DeJohnette's piano ballad at the end however is a wistfully romantic closing piece with subtle references to old spirituals and hymns. 

There is impeccable musicianship to admire here and some sublime moments. But it is an album you might want to like a lot more than you can, and may often feel shortchanged by.

Interested in more by Jack DeJohnette, check out these albums with pianist Keith Jarrett.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Jazz at Elsewhere articles index

Wabjie: Lull (bandcamp)

Wabjie: Lull (bandcamp)

Prompted by Elsewhere's recent article about the Meredith Monk album Dolmen Music, a Swiss jazz-cum-elsewhere trio asked if we might be interested in their work. They go by the name Wabjie --... > Read more

Rava/Herbert/Guidi: For Mario, Live: (Accidental Records/digital outlets)

Rava/Herbert/Guidi: For Mario, Live: (Accidental Records/digital outlets)

With elements of minimalism, tone poems, avant-garde inclinations, yearning European trumpet and soundtracks for disconcerting films, this trio of trumpeter Enrico Rava, pianist Giovanni Guidi... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

GUEST WRITER MITCH MYERS considers Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music album from the distance of decades

GUEST WRITER MITCH MYERS considers Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music album from the distance of decades

In 2000 American writer Mitch Myers, who has appeared at Elsewhere previously, wrote the following essay for Magnet Magazine about Lou Reed's most contentious and divisive album, Metal Machine... > Read more

GREG CAMALIER INTERVIEWED (2014): The sound of soul and the Swampers

GREG CAMALIER INTERVIEWED (2014): The sound of soul and the Swampers

For a small, out of the way town which only had a population of about 8000 back in the Sixties and Seventies, Muscle Shoals in Alabama sure made its mark on the world. Situated by the... > Read more