Joe Chambers Returns With 'Dance Kobina'

New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Drummer, percussionist, vibraphonist, composer, and Blue Note legend Joe Chambers returns with Dance Kobina, his 3rd Blue Note album as a leader which explores the deep musical connection between Jazz, Latin, Brazilian, Argentinian, and African music. The vibrant new album is out today on vinyl, CD, and digital formats via Universal Music.

Dance Kobina was co-produced by pianist Andrés Vial and recorded in both New York and Montréal with musicians including pianists Vial and Richard Germanson, bassists Ira Coleman and Mark Lewandowski, saxophonists Marvin Carter and Caoilainn Power, vibraphonist Michael Davidson, and percussionists Elli Miller Maboungou and Emilio Valdes Cortes. The album presents compelling Chambers originals including "Gazelle Suite," "Ruth," and "Caravanserai," as well as interpretations of pieces by Vial, Kurt Weill, Joe Henderson, and Karl Ratzer.

In the mid-to-late 1960s, Chambers played drums for numerous Blue Note luminaries appearing on some of the decade's most progressive albums including Bobby Hutcherson's Components and Happenings, Wayne Shorter's Adam's Apple, Freddie Hubbard's Breaking Point, Joe Henderson's Mode for Joe, Sam Rivers' Contours, Andrew Hill's Andrew!!!, Donald Byrd's Fancy Free, and many more.

The label's owners - Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff - offered Chambers a chance to record his own album for Blue Note during that fertile period, but he was riding so high on recording and touring with so many jazz greats that he declined the opportunity. Chambers eventually did release his own Blue Note debut Mirrors in 1998 featuring trumpeter Eddie Henderson, saxophonist Vincent Herring, pianist Mulgrew Miller, and bassist Ira Coleman. He returned to the label in 2021 with the Brazilian Jazz inspired album Samba de Maracatu.