Accordion
An accordion may not appear initially to be the instrument of choice for a great drummer, but this one had a special significance for Jaki – it was his father’s and was among the few possessions Jaki and his mother took with them when they fled Ostrau after the war and headed west. It appears in one of the earliest photos we have of Jaki, as a toddler sitting with his father.

Jaki played it regularly and well, and initially had it with him in his practice room: hence the word NICHT just above the keys, a warning to lesser musicians to keep their hands well away. Eventually he took this increasingly delicate and slightly damaged instrument home with him.

It also serves to make an important point about Jaki’s skill as a drummer – that he had a deep and instinctive understanding of harmony and melody from his youth. Therefore his drumming would be in harmony (in the widest sense of the word) with all the other aspects of the music.