New Directions found drummer/pianist Jack DeJohnette reflecting on the multiple routes his musical life had taken and summarizing them in a single band. “My idea was to put together a cast of unlikely characters”.

He’d worked with Eddie Gomez in the Bill Evans Trio, played extensively with John Abercrombie in the Gateway trio and a new alliance with Art Ensemble trumpeter Lester Bowie reconnected Jack to the experimental spirit of the early AACM. “With Lester added we had four strong and very different characters, could cover a lot of musical areas, and the chemistry was fantastic.”

New Directions, recorded in 1978, won France’s Prix du Jazz Contemporain de L’Academie Charles Cros.