A new album from a nationally known Wilmington musician has become a Spotify hit

Joe Chambers thought his new album was finished.

Then, the Wilmington-based jazz musician, composer and bandleader got a call from a former student, a pianist and fellow composer named Andrès Vial, who lives in Montreal.

"He said, 'Why don't you come up and lay down some tracks?'" Chambers recalled in a recent phone interview.

In Montreal, playing with Vial as well as with other musicians from Brazil, Africa and elsewhere, "It was fantastic," Chambers said. "It was striking. It was so vibrant. I was like, 'Man, this stuff is killing.'"

Chambers quickly contacted Don Was, head of the legendary jazz label Blue Note Records, and told him they needed to rethink the album, which he'd originally recorded with a trio in New York. Was concurred, and Chambers' new album, "Dance Kobina," now including some of the music he recorded in Montreal, as well as songs he recorded with the trio in New York, was released Feb. 3 to no small fanfare in the music press.

National Public Radio touted "Dance Kobina" alongside such artists as country star Shania Twain as one of the top album releases of the year so far, and jazz fans worldwide would seem to concur. Chambers now boasts nearly 167,000 monthly listeners on the Spotify streaming service.

Who is Joe Chambers?

Chambers, 80, is from Philadelphia. In 1963 he moved to New York to play jazz, and almost immediately became a session drummer for Blue Note Records, which over the decades has released albums from such icons as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and others.

Over the course of a 60-year career as a jazz drummer, vibraphonist and composer, Chambers has played with the likes of Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie and Chick Corea, as well as with lesser-known but widely respected jazz artists including Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard and Joe Henderson.

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In 1998, Chambers recorded his first solo album for Blue Note, "Mirrors."

In 2008, after an extended time teaching at The New School in New York, Chambers moved from the Big Apple to the Port City to become the Thomas S. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Jazz at the University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Department of Music. He retired from teaching in 2013, but still lives in Wilmington.

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What is 'Dance Kobina'?

In Lingala, a language spoken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where one of the percussionists on the Montreal sessions of Chambers' new album was from, "kobina" means to dance.

Certainly, the nine tracks on "Dance Kobina," which Chambers also arranged and produced, while playing drums on some tracks and vibes on others, are loose and limber, with a fluidity of movement that sounds how dancing feels. That comes in part from Chambers' focus on percussion, as well as from his blending of American jazz with Afro-Cuban rhythms and the musical traditions of Brazil, Africa and elsewhere.

The album includes original compositions by Chambers, some of his reworked compositions from past albums (including the gentle, delicate and lovely "Ruth," a song named for Chambers' wife) and some standards, including "This Is New " by Kurt Weill, which Chambers first played with Chick Corea more than 50 years ago.

Chambers has described "Dance Kobina" as a companion piece of sorts to his 2021 album for Blue Note, "Samba de Maracatu." Because of the pandemic, that album was recorded in the Wilmington area with North Carolina jazz musicians, becoming perhaps the first Port City product with a direct Blue Note connection.

Can I see Chambers in concert?

Chambers doesn't have any dates scheduled at the moment, but he said he's working on setting up shows both in Montreal and in Philadelphia.

Chambers said he'd like to one day play a concert at historic Thalian Hall in downtown Wilmington, but he doesn't have any local dates scheduled at this time.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Blue Note album from Wilmington artist Joe Chambers gets Spotify boost