Leon "Ndugu" Chancler (July 1, 1952 – February 3, 2018) – Suite Chocolate (1979)
The drummer best known for "Billie Jean" wrote this superb, funky suite for his jazz-funk supergroup the Chocolate Jam Company's debut album.
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Leon Ndugu Chancler was a drummer, percussionist, songwriter, producer, and professor who was best known for drumming on Michael Jackson’s iconic 1982 hit “Billie Jean.”
Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, Chancler’s family moved to Los Angeles in 1960 when he was eight years old. He started playing drums at age 13, and while attending Locke High School near Watts was mentored by music educator and working musician Reggie Andrews (with whom he later co-wrote “Let It Whip” by the Dazz Band). Before graduating, he had already played with the noted Latin jazz bandleader Willie Bobo and the Harold Johnson Sextet.
While studying for a degree in music education from Cal State Dominguez Hills, Chancler played with artists including Herbie Hancock, and appeared on recording sessions for albums by Miles Davis and Freddie Hubbard.
One of the groups he joined in the early seventies was the Mtume Umoja Ensemble, led by James Mtume and also featuring saxophonist Gary Bartz. He wrote the jazz workout “Separate Not Equal” for their debut and only album, Alkebu-Lan - Land Of The Blacks (Live At The East). It was one of only two tracks on the double album not written by Mtume himself. Released in 1972 on the avant-garde jazz label Strata-East, original copies today sell for hundreds of dollars on Discogs.
Chancler went on to drum on a half-dozen of George Duke’s albums during the rest of the decade, and wrote the hypnotic jam “The Once Over” for Duke’s 1974 Feel LP.
Chancler joined Santana and played with them for two years from 1974-76. During the rest of the seventies he appeared as a sideman on albums by George Duke, Hubert Laws, George Benson, Stanley Clarke, the Crusaders, Thelonious Monk, Jean-Luc Ponty, Patrice Rushen, Donna Summer, Weather Report, the Temptations, and Tina Turner.
Near the end of the decade Chancler put together his own jazz-funk studio supergroup, the Chocolate Jam Company. For their first album The Spread Of The Future (1979), which he wrote almost entirely himself, the lineup included George Duke on keyboards, trombonist George Bohannon, David T. Walker and Earth Wind & Fire’s Al McKay on guitars, Ernie Watts and Gerald Albright on saxes, and Virginia Ayers sharing lead vocals with Chancler. The album’s strings and horns were arranged by Reggie Andrews.
The album’s highlight was arguably “Suite Chocolate,” which took up almost all of Side Two and contained the LP’s super-funky title track (starting at 2:01) and its upbeat disco-funk single “A Chocolate Jam” (starting at 7:08).
For their second and final album, Do I Make You Feel Better? (1980), credited to Ndugu & The Chocolate Jam Co., he co-wrote the superb jam “Give Your Love” with Virginia Ayers.
He solely wrote the album’s funky title track “Make You Feel Better (Parts 1 & 2).”
Happy Cosmic Birthday to the great Leon Ndugu Chancler.
Further info:
“Leon (Ndugu) Chancler, Versatile Drummer, Is Dead at 65,” obituary, The New York Times, February 7, 2018.
#soul #funk #disco #LeonNduguChancler