Stories of Standards: Blue Bossa

Tune in to Jazz with Victor Cooper – weekdays from 6-9 a.m. MT – for Stories of Standards to hear our favorite versions of this song all week long starting Monday, April 30!

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In July 1961 the U. S. State Department sponsored a one-week “American Jazz Festival” in Rio de Janeiro. The lineup of American musicians included Roy Eldridge, Kenny Dorham, Curtis Fuller, Coleman Hawkins, Al Cohn, Zoot Sims, Herbie Mann, Tommy Flanagan, Ronnie Ball, Ben Tucker, Ahmed-Abdul Malik, Jo Jones, Dave Dailey, Ray Mantilla and singer Chris Connor. Most returned to the United States with a new understanding of bossa nova. Recordings made during that festival were then released as the 1961 album “Kenny Dorham – Hot Stuff From Brazil”. In his 1963 song “Blue Bossa” Kenny Dorham then went on to demonstrate a blend of hard bop and bossa nova.

Kenny Dorham (1924-1972) has many admirers, primarily among critics and musicians, and rarely received as much attention as his peers. He was known for his compositions, arrangements and the rich clarity of his trumpet playing. By the mid 1940’s he was working with some of the most innovative artists of the time as well as playing in big bands before beginning his studies of composition and arrangement in 1948 at the Gotham School of Music under the GI Bill. His first really big break came later that year when Miles Davis recommended that Dorham replace him in Charlie Parker’s quintet. Dorham led the Jazz Prophets in 1956 before replacing Clifford Brown in Max Roach’s quintet. In 1963 he teamed with tenor saxophone player Joe Henderson, and “Blue Bossa” was the first track on Henderson’s first album. “Page One”.

He sometimes found it difficult to make a living in music and from time to time turned to work in places as variegated as a sugar refinery, the post office, and in medical plants. In the late 1960s he also wrote reviews for “Down Beat” magazine. Dorham continued to study music at New York University, was a consultant for the Harlem Youth Act anti-poverty program and served on the board of the New York Neophonic Orchestra. By 1970 his health began to fail, leading to 15-hour per day dialysis sessions and in December 1972 he died of kidney failure.