What do Mahavishnu Orchestra’s ‘Vital Transformation’ and Jack DeJohnette’s ‘Epilog’ have in common apart from being great examples of jazz fusion? They both begin with incredible drum breaks. ‘Epilog’ is the final track on DeJohnette’s album Sorcery released on Prestige in 1974.
In a discussion about the best drummers, it would be hard not to mention Jack DeJohnette, a prolific musician with a career spanning five decades. From his earlier recordings with Coltrane and Bill Evans, to becoming a key player in jazz fusion, most notably on Miles’ Bitches Brew and On The Corner, through to his many recordings on the ECM label, DeJohnette is known for his versatility and adaptability. To quote DeJohnette, “I’ve kept that integrated feeling about music, all types of music, and just carried it with me.”
Sorcery was released a year after DeJohnette had made his ECM debut with pianist Keith Jarrett and his work as part of fusion supergroup Compost (we’ll no doubt return to this in a future post). The album is a blend of modal jazz, psychedelic rock and avant-garde jazz. The album has been criticised for its rambling nature and lack of cohesion. However, as with all great speeches, the audience generally only remember the opening and closing lines and this is what this album will be remembered for.
The opening track ‘Sorcery #1’ is an enjoyable listen, a moody piece of modal composition reminiscent of Ian Carr’s Nucleus with echoes of Miles’ electric fusion. However, the tracks that follow are not as satisfying – the free jazz ramblings on ‘The Right Time’, the abrasive ‘The Rock Thing’, the meandering ‘The Reverend King Suite’ and easy listening-esque ‘Four Levels Of Joy’ – overall the listening experience is mixed.
But it’s on the final track ‘Epilog’ that the band redeem themselves producing a beautiful nugget of jazz fusion. With DeJohnette on drums and keys, Dave Holland on bass and Michael Fellerman on the unusual metaphone, this brooding track has an infectious groove to it. Lasting just over three minutes, it leaves the listener wanting more which is no bad thing, but in this case I wish the band had fleshed out this idea to create a longer track.
The highlight of the track is without a doubt the opening drum break, a source of sampling gold for hip hop producers searching for drum breaks to loop and chop for their own productions. What is particularly interesting is the expression DeJohnette is able to extract from a simple drum break. In his own words, “I see myself as a colourist, not as a drummer per se… I tune my drums in such a way so that no matter what I play, whatever I hit on it is a melody and that makes me think differently, it makes me think more melodically.”
Whilst Sorcery is not a consistent album, it is no doubt an interesting listen with a solid beginning and end. Like all prolific and influential musicians, nobody has a career of perfect albums. Sorcery is experimental and a product of its time and, as the name suggests, is a strange and intriguing chapter in DeJohnette’s discography.
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