Jazz Articles about Joe Chambers

Bobby Hutcherson: Oblique

by Chris May
August 18, 2005

A welcome and worthwhile addition to Blue Note's Rudy Van Gelder remaster series, Oblique is one of only two quartet albums Bobby Hutcherson recorded for the label, and it's the most enduring by a long mile. Two tracks in particular, “Oblique" and “Bi-Sectional," both by genius drummer/composer Joe Chambers, are bona fide, five star hall-of-fame greats.

Hutcherson's first quartet album was Happenings, recorded in '66. Oblique followed in '67. The lineup on both occasions was the same except ...

Joe Chambers on M'Boom

by Russ Musto
May 23, 2005

Joe Chambers first made his mark on the New York jazz scene playing with Eric Dolphy and Freddie Hubbard in the early '60s. Soon afterwards he was regularly recording on important sessions with the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, Wayne Shorter, Archie Shepp and Chick Corea, often contributing his own compositions to the dates. In the '70s Max Roach recruited him as a founding member of the group M'Boom.All About Jazz: Let's start ...

McCoy Tyner: Tender Moments

by Donald Elfman
May 18, 2005

Now 66 years old, McCoy Tyner has made countless albums and become an elder statesman of jazz. He is certainly best known as the pianist in the transformational John Coltrane Quartet of the '60s, but it was with Blue Note recordings like this one from 1967, recently reissued in remastered form, that he revealed his personality as a composer, arranger, and soloist.Tender Moments was one of Tyner's first major explorations of the world of colors and textures available ...

McCoy Tyner: Tender Moments

by Norman Weinstein
August 25, 2004

This is the first, and arguably, the finest big band album the distinguished pianist ever recorded. Six horns are utilized, with the neglected James Spaulding alternating on flute and alto sax along with tenor saxophonist Bennie Maupin, trombonist Julian Priester, trumpeter Lee Morgan, and the exotic horns, with Bob Northern on French horn and Howard Johnson on tuba. There are six Tyner originals gracing the frustratingly brief album (38 minutes). But repeated listening reveals something very subtle and seductive about ...

Joe Chambers: Urban Grooves

by Alexander M. Stern
November 2, 2003

What can one say about the redoubtable Joe Chambers? An adventurous drummer with an eternally questioning spirit, he has certainly played with his share of the greats. Yet Chambers hasn’t received the same accolades as contemporaries like Elvin Jones or Tony Williams. It certainly isn’t for lack of talent or technical ability. The problem, perhaps, has to do with the fact that neither Williams nor Jones is/was as self-effacing as Chambers. Ever the tasteful accompanist, he has a way of ...

Franck Amsallem: Summer Times

by AAJ Staff
September 25, 2003

Pianist Franck Amsallem's seventh record comes from a familiar angle, exploring the range of possibilities within a traditional jazz group. His sophisticated attitude toward the music gives it a rarified cosmopolitan feel, but that's only a mask for the quiet passion that lurks within. In this particular case he leads a trio and combines original material with standards, each tune coming in at a polite range from five to nine minutes in length.

It's impressive that Sunnyside managed to misspell ...

Joe Chambers: Mirrors

by Jim Santella
April 1, 1999

Drummer Joe Chambers, 56, recorded his first Blue Note sessions as a youthful twenty year old, deeply immersed in the New York City jazz scene. While the 1960s were healthy years for the drummer’s professional development, the decade included many distractions for the jazz world. Fusion with rock music and the electronic revolution in equipment introduced many changes and several rifts. The music survived to witness its ‘90s comeback and usher in a generation of young lions. Leaders with whom ...