In Memoriam: Jazz Masters We Lost in 2025

We’re on the verge of losing our living link to the generation that defined the sound of jazz.

From the New Orleans styles of the 1900s–20s, to the big-band era of the ’30s, the bebop revolution of the ’40s, the cool and hard-bop movements of the ’50s, the post-bop and free-jazz explorations of the ’60s, and the fusion wave of the ’70s—jazz grew into a fully formed musical language. Nearly everything that came after has branched out from the groundwork laid in those decades.

The ’70s are now half a century behind us, and the artists who shaped that era have reached their later years. That’s why we’ve seen so many giants pass away over the past decade. The losses this year in particular have further thinned our connection to that formative period. Their voices are gone, but their examples remain. We can’t replace the experience of hearing them in person, yet we hope these words help more listeners discover the music these masters left in the history of jazz.

Jack DeJohnette (August 9, 1942 – October 26, 2025)

By Oliver Abels – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Born in 1942, Jack DeJohnette first drew wider attention through his work in saxophonist Charles Lloyd’s trailblazing fusion quartet. That exposure led Miles Davis to bring him into the studio for Bitches Brew, the landmark album that reshaped the direction of modern jazz. DeJohnette later became one of the defining artists on the then-emerging European label ECM, appearing constantly in its catalog both as a sideman and as a leader.

DeJohnette’s style is rooted in freeing the drum set from its traditional timekeeping role. Building on the groundwork laid by Elvin Jones and Tony Williams, he approached the kit as a painter approaches a canvas, spreading ideas across time and space. Whether he was playing swing or funk/rock rhythms, you rarely heard him lock into a steady, looping pattern. Instead, he moved around the kit in fluid, unpredictable ways, creating a striking level of complexity. Alongside contemporaries like Bob Moses and Jon Christensen—both frequent ECM contributors—DeJohnette helped shape what became known as the “ECM style.” In short, it’s a way of playing non-swing material that avoids the heavy kick-and-snare emphasis of funk and rock, focusing instead on light, intricate cymbal textures. Loose, open, and decoration-driven: these traits describe DeJohnette’s drumming to the core. Thanks to the explorations of DeJohnette and others, today’s contemporary jazz sound would be unimaginable without them.

Of course, his work with pianist Keith Jarrett in the Standards Trio stands as the pinnacle of his career. Their three-decade rapport produced some of the most breathtaking trio moments in modern jazz. And although DeJohnette wasn’t primarily known as an avant-garde figure, his Chicago roots tell another story. His group Special Edition was highly experimental, and late in life he reunited with several major Chicago avant-garde players for Made in Chicago, an album that remains a bold, electrifying journey for listeners.

Al Foster (January 18, 1943 – May 28, 2025)

One year younger than DeJohnette, master drummer Al Foster was essentially his junior in what musicians half-jokingly called the “Miles Davis Academy.” After DeJohnette left Miles’s band, Foster stepped in and went on to play with Miles for more than a decade. He became not only the longest-serving drummer Miles ever hired, but also the only one who stayed with him through both his 1970s retirement and his later comeback.

With Miles, Foster’s role leaned more toward maintaining the groove, rather than the wild, open-ended freedom DeJohnette often brought. But when it came to standard jazz, Foster was every bit as formidable. His early work on trumpeter Blue Mitchell’s Latin-tinged albums The Thing to Do and Down With It already shows his depth. After Miles passed, Foster teamed up with saxophonist Joe Henderson on So Near, So Far, a tribute to Miles, as well as the two live albums The State of the Tenor—all essential ’90s recordings. Compared with DeJohnette’s constantly shifting approach, Foster preferred to lay down a steady pulse and then drop sudden polyrhythmic surprises into the cracks.

Throughout his career, Foster mostly worked as a sideman. He released only seven albums as a leader, and nearly five of them came after 2000. Many musicians who were trailblazers in their youth eventually circle back, like salmon returning home, to the traditional jazz they first fell in love with. Foster was no exception. His later albums are superb hard-bop records, filled with energy and clarity. His passion for supporting younger players also shines through—those albums feature many prominent contemporary jazz musicians, including Adam Birnbaum, Kevin Hays, Doug Weiss, and Chris Potter.

Anthony Jackson(June 23, 1952 – October 19, 2025)

By Art Bromage from Seattle – Anthony Jackson in Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, Link

Bass master Anthony Jackson was the pioneer who brought the six-string electric bass into prominence. While six-string basses existed before him, it was Jackson who established the now-iconic tuning in perfect fourths (from low to high: BEADGC), which has become his signature.

Jackson plays effortlessly between jazz and pop. Not only is he a jazz virtuoso, but he is also a sought-after studio player, who masters R&B, funk, and Latin styles. In jazz, he has maintained long-term collaborations with Latin piano virtuoso Michel Camilo, Brazilian singer-pianist Tania Maria, fusion guitarist Al Di Meola, piano master Michel Petrucciani, the R&B/funk vocalists Patti Austin and Chaka Khan of the ’80s, and the young, fiery pianist Hiromi. In the pop world, his bass lines have anchored albums by Simon & Garfunkel, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, and Peter, Paul & Mary.

Across his career, Jackson has recorded on over 500 albums—a staggering testament to his versatility and influence.

Hermeto Pascoal (June 22, 1936 – September 13, 2025)

Hailing from Brazil’s northeast, Hermeto Pascoal grew up as a fair-skinned child who couldn’t spend long in the sun. Left alone at home while his family went out, he explored the world around him in his own unique way—through sound. This curiosity led Hermeto to constantly turn everyday objects into music.

Videos online show him creating pitches with half-filled water bottles, using his own beard to generate rhythms, singing into a cup of water while submerging his beard, and even tapping his belly and cheeks as percussion. Calling him an “experimenter of sound” is no exaggeration.

Hermeto’s true mastery spans the accordion, piano, flute, and saxophone, while his compositions cleverly fuse Northeastern Brazilian styles like Forró and Baião with rock and funk. Rhythmically, he constantly introduces unexpected challenges, often experimenting with odd meters that were rare at the time.

His brilliance caught Miles Davis’s attention in the 1970s, leading to Hermeto’s participation on the Live-Evil album, which also included his compositions. Legend has it that the boxing-loving Miles once asked Hermeto to spar with him. With his eyes seemingly unfocused, Miles couldn’t tell where Hermeto was looking—only to receive a solid punch to the face from the fearless musician, who earned Miles’s exclamation that he was “a crazy white man.”

This fearless streak reflects Hermeto’s personality and shines through in his music, unbound by convention and full of wild imagination.