ON the Beat | Días de los Musicas

Jack DeJohnette with Spring Quartet at the Lobero Theatre | Photo: David Bazemore

A Drummer and Life Force Passes On

Sadly, Jack DeJohnette has passed into the next realm, at 83, and with him goes the formidable life force of one of jazz’s greatest drummers. His remarkable and organic approach to the instrument was somehow both liberated and ever hyphen-searching while grounded in touchstones of jazz tradition. What he did behind a drum kit was a poetic expressive world unto itself, though never veering away from the essence of whatever setting he was working in.

DeJohnette’s vast résumé and range of musical interests pass through the AACM (link) (from his hometown of Chicago) through Miles Davis’s transition into electric bill and a long and vibrant stretch with the Keith Jarrett “standards” trio (link), in the running for best piano trio in jazz history. More accurately, that sublime group was less a piano trio, in the standard sense, than a meeting of equal comrades, along with bassist Gary Peacock.

In other corners of DeJohnette’s long and varied life, he played, as a young emerging firebrand, in the popular ‘60s group led by Montecito’s own Charles Lloyd (also with Jarrett in the mix) and kept up a steady flow of projects under his own name. The greatest of these was probably Special Edition (link), with David Murray and Arthur Blythe, and his band New Directions, which played at the Arlington on a special night of artists on the ECM label. DeJohnette returned to town with his Spring Quartet, featuring Joe Lovano and Esperanza Spalding, at the Lobero.

On a more intimate and historic occasion, locally, he brought his group with pianist Mike Cain to owner Ridah Omri’s tiny-but-mighty Jazz Hall on Victoria Street, in 1996. Needless to say, it was an SRO show, and one for the books.

I interviewed DeJohnette for a liner notes project I worked on for Miles Davis’ Bootlegs, Vol. 2, release. Of that transitional Miles period, in 1969, DeJohnette noted “ there was a whole lot of innovation going on then. It may have leaned a little more toward the so-called avant-garde, but we incorporated both things. We did the funk thing, we did free playing. It was a great period, and it hasn’t been documented so much.”

Speaking of his long rich rapport with Jarrett, DeJohnette said, “maybe we played together in another life. We don’t have to speak too much about what we do when we play. It’s just an intuitive, natural chemistry that we share. It has just continued developing throughout the years.”

I asked him if exploring new ideas is in his blood. “Yeah,” he said, “that seems to be my intuitive trademark. I like to have fun with the music. That’s the thing. If you don’t have fun with it, there’s no point in doing it.”

His epic “fun” translated into a long, enriched musical life, leaving a legacy we can now appreciate, if only on recordings.

Night of the Living, and Kicking

Lila Downs at the Arlington Theatre, October 23, 2025 | Photo: David Bazemore

Día de los Muertos arrived early this year, and in festive, rhythm-pumped regalia, courtesy of the inimitable Lila Downs. The proudly Mexican singer returned to town, this time amid the suitably fantasyland-ish décor of the Arlington Theatre, and reminded us of her unique blend of artistic integrity and charisma to spare. Fittingly, this show was part of the party faction in the current UCSB Arts & Lectures season, and also in association with the Santa Barbara Mariachi Festival, which featured her as a starring guest in 2016.

As an indication of the range of her interests as an artist and activist, the concert opened with Downs narrating a “Know Your Rights” promo video, in our time of ICE-y terror, and closed the night with a spicy dance-fired tune extolling the virtues of mezcal. Said “beverage of the gods,” to quote her, was sampled by the singer between verses. That song morphed into the virtually anthemic Mexican classic “La Bamba.”

Backed by a potent six-piece band (with impressive trumpet and trombone players aboard), Downs, emerging with orange flowers in her hair and festooning her microphone stand, took a journey through the diverse palette making up her unique but tradition-reverent voice. There were stops in the worlds of ranchera, cumbia, and other indigenous Mexican traditions, with colorful dance fever supplied by the spirited Ballet Folklórico de Los Ángeles.

Memorable songs along the way included a version of Gillian Welch’s “Dear Someone” (“Querido Alguien,” in Spanish), recorded in a duet with Norah Jones in 2019. The concert’s pre-encore set closed with her Peruvian-powered hit “Cariñito,” in kicking cumbia style.

Also onstage, artfully writhing dancers in skull masks were living it up, for the sake of the dead and us living.

Finnish Delights, and More

Philharmonia Orchestra, presented by CAMA, The Granada Theatre, October 20, 2025 | Photo: David Bazemore

I happened to be in Helsinki on the occasion of its grand 100th centennial of the country’s liberation after centuries of Russian and Swedish rule, and gravitated to the central waterfront near the presidential palace, where a massive and proud crowd had gathered. Booming out over a less-than-ideal public address system was the anthemic sound of Sibelius’ “Finlandia,” the signature piece by the composer who would be a national hero (where else in the world is a composer deemed a national hero?).

It was a very different scenario, naturally, to hear “Finlandia” played in its full orchestral glory at The Granada Theatre last week, and through the august auspices of the Philharmonia Orchestra from London. The ensemble, now led by another one of those heroic Finnish maestros, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, served up a delectable feast of a “Finlandia,” from its mystical murmurings through a fanfare-like passage and easing into the familiar melody of freedom.

We’ve grown happily accustomed to the pristine face of the Philharmonia Orchestra, as part of CAMA’s hostings, including last year and in 2019 led by that famed Finn Esa-Pekka Salonen. This time, the Sibelius focus continued with his fascinating Symphony No. 5, perched presciently between romanticism and the oncoming modernism of his early 20th-century era. Another Fifth Symphony of note, from Shostakovich, rose to its proper pitch of tumult, wit, and resolution in the hands of the Finn and the Londoners. Like Sibelius’s opus, this music enjoys life on the brink of modernist intent, and is a masterpiece without the overkill staleness of a warhorse.

One After (and Before) the 109

Víkingur Ólafsson, presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures at Campbell Hall, October 22, 2025 | Photo: David Bazemore

In other Scandinavian musical matters, the focus turned westward two nights later with the return of the potent Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafasson. We last heard him in a star-studded duet with Yuja Wang at the Granada last season, and he returned in solo form at Campbell Hall on Wednesday.

This Ólafsson encounter went by the simple but loaded moniker “109,” as in Beethoven’s mythic sonata No. 109 from his legendary late sonatas, serving as the program’s centerpiece. But Bach lurked prominently in the background: Ólafsson had recently finished a recording a year-long tour of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, and he has pointed out the direct and indirect influence of Goldberg on the 109, not to mention Bach’s looming imprint all of the composers on the program.

In this recital package, Olaffson’s conceptual conceit was to weave together works by Bach, Beethoven and Schubert into a seamless, breakless whole, designed partly with a mission to illustrate commonalities and through-lines between the pieces. Applause had to wait until after the 90-minute sprawl. As novel as this format was, to some of us, it was a disorienting experience, somehow disrespectful to the integrity of each work. It felt like a plate of virtuosic, mash-up mush.

That cavil aside, it’s always a great pleasure to witness Ólafsson in action. The pianist brought along his stunning technical and expressive fireworks, and sensitivity to nuance — including a micro-dynamic shading within even a given phrase or gesture. He is an altogether commanding pianist, with a bow tie and his friendly, articulate intelligence in tow.

To-Doings:

Household name-brand violinist Itzhak Perlman, a regular visitor in Santa Barbara over the years, returns to the Granada with his Jewish/klezmer-pitched “In the Fiddler’s House” program, last heard here in 2017. Joining the “fiddler” is the celebrated Andy Statman, a twin threat on both clarinet and mandolin, and players from Brave Old World, Klezmer Conservatory Band, and beyond.

Fans of fine big band jazz: run, don’t walk to SOhO on Monday, November 3, to catch the reckoning force that is the “Monday Madness Gang,” rooted at Santa Barbara City College but with its tentacles out amongst some of the stronger jazz players in this town and beyond. Led by Andrew Martinez (himself, a bold tenor saxist), the Madness clan delivers the big band goods with a precision and passion that translates in any room, including Santa Barbara’s great showcase club/eatery.

Last and certainly not least on the list, a late-breaking booking at SOhO brings a timely tribute to the late, great Jensen’s Music to the club on Sunday afternoon, November 2. Jensen’s, founded and intrepidly run by Chris Jensen, was a critical life force in the musical community, for a remarkable 52-year run, until its recent closing. Its reputation spread far beyond the 805, as one of the brave independent music stores on the west coast, and the country? The celebration includes speechifying followed by music from the Jensen’s All-Star Band. Proceeds go to the “Jensens retirement fund,” a worthy cause for a local hero who served the community for a healthy handful of decades.