Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joe Chambers was born June 25, 1942 in Stoneacre, Virginia into a musical family. He grew up listening to the rock and roll of Louis Jordan and Slim Gaillard along with classical composers like Vivaldi and Beethoven. At the tender age of four he was playing pots and pans, setting them up like a kit. More taken with Lester Young and Lionel Hampton, nonetheless, he soon joined a band that played the R&B hits and at thirteen hearing the esoteric sounds of Miles Davis, he was hooked.
Chambers earned an undergrad degree from the Philadelphia Conservatory and by the time he was twenty cut his first session on Freddie Hubbard’s Breaking Point. That single date led to road work with Harold Land, Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, Eric Dolphy and Dizzy Gillespie.
As a member of the ‘60s Blue Note fraternity, Joe stands amongst some of the greatest jazz musicians of the 20th century. His intense drumming and trademark blend of cymbal-driven forward motion, deeply rhythmic continuity and explosive creativity has graced numerous landmark recordings like Hutcherson’s “Components”, Shorter’s “Schizophrenia” and “Etcetera”, and Tyner’s “Tender Moments”.
Joe Chambers is more than a drummer adding vibraphonist, pianist, composer and educator to his resume. He has eight albums as a leader, has scored several Spike Lee films, taught at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music in NYC and leads the Outlaw Band at the school; and he is the Thomas S. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Jazz in the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Department of Music.
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