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Jack DeJohnette

Once again I've been seeing so much great music I'm behind in writing about it. Last week the super group Sangam,which means confluence in Sanskrit, with Zakir Hussain, Charles Lloyd, and Eric Harland played SF Jazz. Zakir supplied bass support with his tablas. The trio has a 2006 recording on ECM. It's hard to come up with superlatives that do these three geniuses justice. The Charles Lloyd Quartet (with Keith Jarrett, Jack DeJohnette, and Cecil McBee) was a ground breaking group that changed history, as did Zakir's work with John McLaughlin in Shakti. Eastern and Western music do become one. Opening with an alap, with Zakir chanting deep notes while fanning colors from his tablas, fingers a blur, Lloyd bridging East and West with hints of jazz and raga, and Harland providing colors from bebop to funk to abstract, it is new and fresh music of the highest order. A special treat was running into Zakir at the restaurant Dosa the next evening after another performance. Gracious, and regal, and humble, as are all great artists through which the music flows.
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