Jack DeJohnette Opens Music Series

The 2009–2010 Music Series at Berklee begins with legendary drummer, pianist, and composer Jack DeJohnette playing his vast and varied songbook Thursday, October 8, at 8:15 p.m., at the Berklee Performance Center, 136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston. General admission tickets are $20–25 and available at the Berklee Performance Center box office, at Ticketmaster.com, or by calling 617 931-2000. For information, call 617 747-2261 or visit berkleebpc.com.

Like other Series artists, DeJohnette will spend the week leading up to the concert as an artist-in-residence at Berklee. He'll teach master classes during the day, and in the evening, along with bandmate and Berklee guitar professor David Fiuczynski, he'll rehearse top student vocalists and instrumentalists who will perform with the pair in concert. 

Chicago-born DeJohnette is considered one of the world's most innovative jazz percussionists. For more than four decades, his career has traversed the boundaries of r&b, hard-bop, avant-garde, Latin, meditative, reggae, and dance music, and he continues to push boundaries. He has collaborated with the biggest names in the history of music, including John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Sun Ra, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Keith Jarrett, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Abbey Lincoln, and Betty Carter, among others.

According to Fiuczynski, who is the concert's producer, "We have a great and diverse group of student players lined up to play with Jack. The first part of the concert will focus on material DeJohnette performed with his Special Edition Ensemble. The second half will have more of a world music feel, with musicians and instruments from the Middle East, Finland, Turkey, India, and others."

Fiuczynski is the bandleader and primary songwriter for the Screaming Headless Torsos and has performed and recorded with John Zorn, Vernon Reid, Branford Marsalis, and Stewart Copeland.