With drummer/keyboardist Jack DeJohnette entering his eighth decade on planet earth, he's managed to accomplish what few other drummers have. Recipient of the 2012 NEA Jazz Masters Award, there are few jazz drummer s alive today who can cite as many recordings as the Chicago-born DeJohnette can, nor are there many who have been on such a diverse stylistic cross-section. DeJohnette, now a legend himself, was picked up by a large number of then-high profile musicians in the early days of his career, artists like trumpeters Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard, keyboardists Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans and Joe Zawinul, and saxophonists Jackie McLean, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson and Charles Lloyd. And, over the years, he's been a member of significant and long-lasting ensembles, including Lloyd's famous '60s quartet with pianist Keith Jarrett, the Gateway trio with guitarist John Abercrombie and bassist Dave Holland, and, of course, Jarrett's Standards Trio that, along with bassist Gary Peacock, hits its 30th anniversary in 2013.
But as extensive and stylistically far-reaching as DeJohnette's recordings as a sideman/guest have been, his own discography is equally broad and, at approximately 30 titles, is certainly large enough to demonstrate his compositional skills and an ability to put together groups to realize his own ideas. While he'd released a handful of recordings prior to coming to ECM in 1973—first, for the duet recording with Jarrett, Ruta and Daitya (1973)—from that time until 1984, the vast majority of DeJohnette's output as a leader (and certainly his most significant work) was affiliated with producer Manfred Eicher's renowned German label.
During those 11 years, beyond Gateway and the Standards Trio, DeJohnette led three groups that have remained important and influential in the drummer/keyboardist's career. First, Jack DeJohnette's Directions, featuring John Abercrombie, saxophonist Alex Foster and bassist Mike Richmond, released two fine albums that remain criminally unreleased on CD—1976's Untitled (which also included keyboardist Warren Bernhardt, and the even better New Rags, the following year. Then came New Directions, a quartet that retained Abercrombie, but shifted considerably with the recruitment of bassist/Bill Evans partner Eddie Gomez and Art Ensemble Of Chicago trumpeter Lester Bowie, releasing New Directions in 1978 and In Europe in 1980.
But it was DeJohnette's next group, Special Edition, which emerged as his most long-lived group, with four recordings on ECM before the drummer moved to Impulse! for two more plugged-in recordings, followed by recordings on other labels, culminating in 1995's Extra Special Edition (Blue Note), which featured an expanded lineup and a purview that was, like the previous Music for the Fifth World (Manhattan, 1993) and Earth Walk (Blue Note, 1991), even more electric and eclectic.
Three of DeJohnette's four Special Edition recording on ECM have been available, at one time or another, on CD. The first, 1980's Special Edition, was even reissued as part of the label's budget-line Touchstone series, which began in 2008 to celebrate the label's pending 40th anniversary in 2009 by rereleasing 40 seminal recordings over the next two years, but the others—1981's Tin Can Alley and 1984's Album Album—have been unavailable for some time, making the four-disc box set, Special Edition, a most welcome addition to ECM's Old and New Masters series.
Special Edition (1980) comes out of the gate with the strong one-two punch of "One for Eric" and "Zoot Suite," tributes to reed multi-instrumentalist Eric Dolphy saxophonist Zoot Sims respectively that originally comprised the original LP's first side. Two pieces that the drummer has revisited more than once in subsequent years, bands and albums, they also demonstrate DeJohnette's ongoing strength for finding and supporting up-and-coming players. David Murray had already established himself as a force with which to be reckoned as a member of the World Saxophone Quartet and for a string of albums under his own name, most notably for the Black Saint label, but the 24 year-old reed player turns in an early career-defining bass clarinet solo on "One for Eric," a tune that also demonstrates DeJohnette's ability to inject a wry sense of humor into his music. An initially rapid-fire melody, which Murray shares with alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe (another star on the rise when Special Edition was recorded), the tune dissolves into grooves both defined and free, with DeJohnette and bassist Peter Warren setting up a slow, visceral pulse for Murray's register-spanning solo and turning more up-tempo for Blythe, whose solo ends, leaving a bass-drums duo that belie accusations that ECM recordings don't swing.
"Zoot Suite" opens as another swinger, with Murray switching to tenor, with DeJohnette sitting out completely but showing his compositional chops with a middle passage of rare beauty that utilizes two horns and Warren, at this point on cello, in a way that suggests a larger ensemble, a quality that ultimately shows up again and again on this and subsequent records. With the piece's repeating pattern of 4-4-3-3-4, DeJohnette finally enters near the half-way mark, driving a hard -edged pulse with Warren that bolsters Murray's gritty tenor and Blythe's frenzied alto—at times alone, other times together in an absolutely free approach to playing structure that DeJohnette had already defined on earlier recordings like New Rags.
Warren's two recordings with Special Edition make it curious that, while he'd already recorded with artists as diverse as violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and trumpeter Tomasz Stanko, after his time with DeJohnette he continued to work but never retained the visibility that his tenure with Special Edition provided. A double threat on bass and cello, his arco work is especially lovely on a quartet version of saxophonist JohnColtrane's ballad "Central Park West," for two saxophones, cello, and melodica (played by DeJohnette). In some ways, placing Special Edition on CD alters the mood created on the original LP by making "Central Park" run consecutive to "Central Park West," which set a completely different mood for the original second half of the album. Another Coltrane piece, "India," follows, with DeJohnette switching to piano for the first half of the tune, only moving to drums partway through Murray's gritty bass clarinet solo, turning even more aggressive during Blythe's similarly focused yet unshackled alto solo.
The album ends with "Journey to the Twin Planet," initially abstract but then shifting into some of the group's most scorching passages of collective interplay of the set, building to a potent climax before being cued to a sudden stop and leading to a coda that's an early example of what DeJohnette referred to, in a 2012 All About Jazz Interview, where he said, " The thing about free jazz, and I explain this to people: people will go sit and listen to classical music—something written that sounds like free jazz, and they'll listen to it. There's a context—written versus something played spontaneously which, if it was written, people would listen to in a different way. It amazes me. 'Oh that's not jazz, it's free jazz; they don't know what they're doing.' And yet, if someone transcribed it and put it in a classical context and said, 'This is so-and-so, and it was written by so-and-so,' people would sit down and listen to it seriously." - John Kelman
The first (and mightiest) of Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition ensembles offered a sound that in many ways was revolutionary in modern contemporary and creative improvised music circa 1980. With firebrand alto saxophonist Arthur Blythe and enfant terrible tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist David Murray bobbing, weaving, and counterpunching, DeJohnette and bassist Peter Warren could have easily stood back in deference to these heavyweight pugilists. The result was a vehicle by which DeJohnette could power the two with his two-fisted drumming and play piano or melodica when the mood suited him, while Warren could simply establish a foundation for all to launch their witty, extroverted, oftentimes boisterous ideas into the stratosphere. The recording starts off very strong with two definitive tracks. "One for Eric," perfectly rendered in the spirit of Eric Dolphy, has Blythe and Murray's bass clarinet taking off, flying, and then soaring. Their contrasting tart and sweet sounds merge beautifully, and not without a smidgen of humor. "Zoot Suite" sports a great 4/4 bass groove with quirky accents, while Blythe's alto and Murray's tenor repeat a head-nodding line, then Murray's sax chortles like a cow, then they float over DeJohnette's melodica, and on the repeat line the drummer powers the band to the finish line. Both of these tracks are as complete, fully realized, and utterly unique as any in modern jazz, and deserve standards status. But John Coltrane's visage is not far behind on the peaceful "Central Park West," with DeJohnette again on the underlying melodica, while "India" has DeJohnette leading out on a playful Native and Eastern Indian motif via his piano playing. Blythe and Murray literally weep on the alto and bass clarinet. The finale, "Journey to the Twin Planet," is a free-based improvisation, with Blythe's squawky alto and Murray's long-toned tenor with overblown harmonics held in mezzo piano range, and DeJohnette's melodica evincing an electronic stance. A craggy, wild, and free bop idea provides a bridge (or maybe wormhole) to a calmer, supposed other planet. While there are no extra tracks on this recording -- and they would be welcome -- this first version of Special Edition stands alone as one of the most important and greatest assemblages of jazz musicians. This LP deserves a definitive five-star rating for the lofty place it commands in the evolution of jazz toward new heights and horizons. - Michael G. Nastos
Tracks
1. One for Eric (Jack DeJohnette)
2. Zoot Suite (Jack DeJohnette)
3. Central Park West (John Coltrane)
4. India (John Coltrane)
5. Journey to the Twin Planet (Jack DeJohnette)
ARTHUR BLYTHE alto saxophone
PETER WARREN bass, cello
JACK DEJOHNETTE drums, piano, melodica
DAVID MURRAY tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
Recorded March 1979 at Generation Sound Studios, New York.
ECM Records - ECM 1152