Jack DeJohnette – HuffPost 2.27.12

Mike Ragogna: John, what advice might you have for a new artist?

Jack DeJohnette: Being a musician today is different than it was 20, 30 years ago. One has to work hard to develop excellence in their field and also, one has to learn how to navigate the internet and be an entrepreneur, and try to create an audience, develop that. Also, networking and working with musicians who know a little or a lot more than you do and have an exchange with possibly older musicians that you can talk to who don’t talk down to you but talk to you as a youth and have an exchange.

MR: Do you ever think, when listening to some of the music by the younger artists that are out there, “If only they used this chord instead of that one,” etc.?

JD: Not too much, because there is so much information available from the past that they have their iPhone or iPad and they’ve done a lot of listening, they have a lot available to them. Musicians like Esperanza, Marcus Gilmore, Ambrose Akinmusire, Lionel Loueke, Grace Kelly — the young 18-year-old saxophonist from Boston — they are pretty sharp. I mean, the drummers and saxophone players…there’s a lot of talent around, they just have to develop and it’s harder for them because there’s not too many groups that are out there like the Jazz Messengers. A lot of the youngsters have to start being bandleaders early, so that’s a pretty tough one. But they’re equipped to do it and they learn as they go, so I think the next round of these musicians are going to make some very good contributions to music.