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327
Album Review

Jack DeJohnette and Foday Musa Suso: Music from the Hearts of the Masters

Read "Music from the Hearts of the Masters" reviewed by John Kelman


For drummer Jack DeJohnette's second project on his fledgling Golden Beams Productions record label, he moves from the Asian subcontinent south to Africa for a series of duets with master Gambian kora player Foday Musa Suso. While Music from the Hearts of the Masters is, in its own way, as hypnotic as DeJohnette's first release on his label, the meditative Music in the Key of OM, it's also more actively engaging and extroverted. At first glance the ...

476
Album Review

Jack DeJohnette featuring Bill Frisell: The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers

Read "The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Drummer Jack DeJohnette, now four releases down the road with his Golden Beams label, turns to the archives for this historic live set with Bill Frisell. The guitarist first heard DeJohnette's music as a teenager in the '60s, though it took some time before they would first perform together on Don Byron's Romance with the Unseen (Blue Note, 1999). They embrace a shared musical vision with one ear to the ground, digging the groove, and the other wide open to ...

449
Album Review

Jack DeJohnette: Music We Are

Read "Music We Are" reviewed by John Kelman


Since the inception of his Golden Beams Productions imprint, Jack DeJohnette has been busy releasing music ranging from the meditational Music in the Key of Ohm (Golden Beams, 2005) and world music-inflected Music from the Hearts of the Masters (Golden Beams, 2005) to the more decidedly improvisational The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers (Golden Beams, 2006). A freedom of spirit infuses all his releases, but it's been over a decade since the veteran drummer has released an album as a ...

171
Album Review

The Jack DeJohnette Group: Live at Yoshi's 2010

Read "Live at Yoshi's 2010" reviewed by John Kelman


In the text file accompanying his digital download-only Live at Yoshi's 2010, Jack DeJohnette is quoted, ..."Each piece is different every time we play it." Fans of this veteran drummer--for whom a precise count of all the artists he's worked with (let alone all the recordings he's appeared on) would be an exercise in futility--would have to agree. DeJohnette's quintet-- which made a stop at the well-known Oakland club during a summer tour in 2010--opens with a 21-minute version of ...

292
Album Review

Jack DeJohnette with Bill Frisell: The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers

Read "The Elephant Sleeps But Still Remembers" reviewed by Celeste Sunderland


Something astonishing happened on Halloween night in Seattle five years ago: Jack DeJohnette took the stage with Bill Frisell. An event so unthinkably natural had only occurred once before, at a recording session with Don Byron two years earlier. This album, recorded at the Earshot Jazz Festival, exists as testimony that when two mammoth figures join together, time can develop into something quite grand. Taking up their instruments on the starting title track, the drummer and guitarist ...

437
Album Review

Jack DeJohnette: Music in the Key of OM

Read "Music in the Key of OM" reviewed by John Kelman


The past year has seen an upswing in the number of artist-owned labels, indicating that more artists are becoming interested in taking charge of their work. Some, like bassist Dave Holland--after a fruitful thirty-year relationship with ECM that has never impeded him from following his muse wherever it might take him--have chosen to do so in order to gain more complete ownership. Others, like trumpeter Dave Douglas--after a strong and varied run on RCA/BMG--want more complete artistic control from project ...

186
Album Review

Jack DeJohnette and Foday Musa Suso: Music from the Hearts of the Masters

Read "Music from the Hearts of the Masters" reviewed by AAJ Staff


Conventional wisdom has it that Africa is the home of the drum, and over the years many an American musician has looked to the Dark Continent for rhythmic inspiration. But this particular collaboration turns the tables on that assumption, so to speak, by placing veteran jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette in the company of a kora (21-stringed West African harp/lute) player from the Gambia. Foday Musa Suso is no stranger to this sort of joint effort, having worked closely with Herbie ...

383
Album Review

Jack DeJohnette and Foday Musa Suso: Music from the Hearts of the Masters

Read "Music from the Hearts of the Masters" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner


Jack DeJohnette's debut release for his new Golden Beams label, Music From The Hearts of the Masters, pairs the legendary drummer with internationally renowned kora player, percussionist, and griot Foday Musa Suso for a transporting duet which encases the listener in an intricately designed and masterfully executed world of sound. As a jazz drummer, DeJohnette needs no introduction. His command over the drum kit has set him apart since the earliest stages of his career, and his ...


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