Martin Johnson

That's drummer Jack DeJeanette kicking off Miles Davis' 1971 classic, Jack Johnson, one of the highlights of the legendary trumpeter's electric period.

DeJeanette was the perfect drummer for that era.

He combined the power of rock and funk with the finesse of jazz.

His thunderous rhythms could match the power of an electric guitar, but his delicate shadings could elevate a familiar standard into a new listening experience, as he does here on I Fall in Love Too Easily.

Dijonet was born in Chicago in 1942.

Originally, he played piano, an instrument he returned to on many occasions during his career.

He switched his focus to drums when he was 13 years old, and he was playing professionally a year later, making the gig in rhythm and blues bands, jazz ensembles, and even some of the early avant-garde groups.

He moved to New York in 1966, and later that year, he played with the saxophonist Joe Henderson and the pianist McCoy Tyner at Slug's Saloon in Manhattan.

Dijonette recorded the date.

It was released last year as Forces of Nature, a showcase of exceptional late 60s jazz.

A few years later, he reunited with Henderson on his classic 1969 recording, Power to the People, which features an extraordinary band.

Here's Dejanette mixing it up with pianist Herbie Hancock.

Hancock recently said of Dijonet, he always played the drums with a pianist's sense of melody, color, and harmony.

During the 70s, Dejanette's drums became one of the defining sounds of the then-new label, ECM Records, and he appeared on many recordings in several contexts, as a sideman, a co-leader, and as the founder and leader of bands like Directions, New Directions, and notably Special Edition, where he was often the elder, honing and challenging younger saxophonists like Chico Freeman, David Murray, and John Purcell.

Let's listen to Dijonet lead Purcell and Freeman on Tin Can Alley.

Pianist Keith Jarrett was one of Dijonet's most frequent collaborators.

They played together with Charles Lloyd in the 60s, then with Miles Davis a few years later.

For more than 30 years, starting in the early 80s, Dejanette, Jarrett, and bassist Gary Peacock played as the Standards Trio, reinventing classic works.

It became one of the most loved bands in jazz.

Dijonet told the podcast The American Radio Show that the trio's longevity owed to their strategy of playing every piece as if it were new, playing it for the first time.