Label: Blue Note Records, 2021

Personnel - Brad Merritt: piano, synthesizer; Steve Haines: bass; Joe Chambers: drums, percussion, vibraphone; Stephanie Jordan: vocals; MC Parrain: rap.

Samba de Maracatu, the new recording from legendary drummer Joe Chambers on the Blue Note label, shows his openness to musical directions and a passion for blending creative post-bop and tasteful exotic rhythms of different provenance. Playing alongside pianist Brad Merritt and bassist Steve Haines, the bandleader envisioned for this outing three originals, three fresh readings of formidable compositions by Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver and Bobby Hutcherson, and a couple of well-worn jazz standards.

It’s exactly with one of the latter, “You and the Night and the Music”, that the trio starts to jump off things in absolute amusement. Merritt’s skilled piano playing traverses three choruses with improvisational elasticity. Haines and Chambers, more succinct in their individual statements, hand out a spirited swinging propulsion for most of the time.

The vibrant “Circles”, which Chambers composed for Max Roach’s percussive unit M’Boom, is rhythmically announced with hot Latin-flavored drums and complemented with a bass figure in five that shifts in the B section, adapting to the six beats per measure. The bandleader is not only a drummer of broad fluency but also an excellent vibraphonist whose melodically enthralled work transpires here. He also plays this instrument with a notably sensitive touch on Bobby Hutcherson’s “Visions”, a dreamy and ethereal post-bop anthem.

Another long-lasting tenure of his career was with saxophonist Wayne Shorter, whose piece “Rio” appears here with a lyrical abstraction meant to obscure boundaries. The main theme emerges at the end with no loss of that Brazilian tinge we hear on Lee Morgan’s The Procrastinator (Blue Note, 1978), where it was originally included.

His love of Brazilian music is also patented on his “Samba de Maracatu”, a hypnotic dance whose rhythmic pattern combines surdo, snare drum, claves, and shaker. Merritt outlines the introductory section alone, later sharpening his comping to better serve the soloing intentions of Chambers on the vibraphone.

Adding even more variety to the eclectic mix, there’s a bossa-soul rendition of “Never Let Me Go”, sung by Stephanie Jordan, and “New York State of Mind Rain”, an intersection of tunes by Nas and Chambers, whose hip-hop-fueled foundation welcomes the guest rapper MC Parrain.

An alluring array of melodies and percussive textures make this album a required stop for true eclectic jazz lovers.