Joseph Tawadros and drummer Jack DeJohnette recorded Conversations with Jack

Joseph Tawadros and jazz drummer Jack DeJohnette recorded the album Conversations with Jack over two days with nothing worked out in advance, UK Jazz News reported in a review published August 16. The Egyptian-Australian oud player and composer said he "didn't really go in with any music," aiming instead to "see how organic the music making would be."

Tawadros first met DeJohnette in Australia in 2010 while recording The Hour of Separation with John Abercrombie and John Patitucci, and the two stayed loosely in touch for 15 years before Tawadros called DeJohnette and arranged to stay on in New York after a tour with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. They recorded Conversations with Jack at Utopia Studios in Bearsville, New York, with engineer Pete Caigan, and Malian kora player Yacouba Sissoko joined for the second day of sessions.

The album mixes freely improvised passages with more traditional Arabic-style pieces. "There are tracks which are quite authentic in terms of Middle Eastern Tarab phrasing," Tawadros said, "and then there are free tracks where we're just trying to find each other." DeJohnette described the oud in the review as "a kind of a heart instrument" for its sensitivity, adding, "I like what Joseph does with the Oud. It's very contemporary what he's doing."

DeJohnette, who began playing professionally at 14 and built a career spanning 70 years, held a clear philosophy about improvisation heading into his final year. "Music is a universal language and you just have to be open and tune in and the rest takes care of itself," he said. "Improvisation is a part of the human condition." Tawadros, at roughly half DeJohnette's age, described taking a similar lesson from the session: "You learn colour and flavour and every musician you play with you take something away."

Tawadros said playing with DeJohnette could be demanding because of how loose his drumming is, but that the connection between them pushed both musicians to do better.

DeJohnette died in October 2025 at 83, about a year after the sessions were recorded, making the album one of his final recorded works. Tawadros called it "a good snapshot of the diversity of Jack," adding that it was sad DeJohnette never got to hear the finished record. DeJohnette himself, reflecting on the sessions before his death, put it more simply: "I really got a kick out of it!" The album adds to the small but distinctive catalog of jazz collaborations Tawadros has built across his career.