Composer Steve Chambers

[bertrand]

I would like to know more about Steve Chambers, the classical composer who died in 1987 and was the brother of Joe Chambers. Joe is one of my favorite jazz composers, so I'm curious about what his brother's music is like. Is any of it easily available?

Thanks,

Bertrand.

[mikeweil]

You will probably be more successful if you search for his muslim name, Talib Rasul Hakim. There was one composition on a Folkways anthology New American Music, vol. 3 - I think M'Boom, of which Joe Chambers was a member, performed it.

Edited April 20, 2011 by mikeweil

[Rooster_Ties]

Wow, that really opens things up. Wikipedia entry, his papers are at Columbia, there's even a Facebook page on him (of all things).

[Spontooneous]

One piece of piano music on this disc. Order it direct from the nonprofit label at newworldrecords.org. (Please. I love this label.)

Edited January 14, 2011 by Spontooneous

[bertrand]

It looks like Columbia College in Chicago rather than Columbia U. But great that his papers are gathered in a school in any case.

Studied with Ornette and Hall Overton!

Bertrand.

Edited January 14, 2011 by bertrand

[JSngry]

He has a powerful piece here (recently reissued in box form, highly recommended):

[david weiss]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

He has a powerful piece here (recently reissued in box form, highly recommended):

Wow...

Didn't know about this...

Just scored one on ebay.

[sgcim]

I was in his Free Jazz Ensemble at Nassau Community College. It was fun, but he took that shit a little too seriously. He told me once that I could "hear around corners".

I told him I couldn't make a rehearsal, because I had a 'club date', and he started yelling at me, telling me that I was prostituting myself, and kicked me out of the Ensemble.

A blues guitar player friend of mine took his Jazz Survey course, and kept asking him one day in class about Bird's use of the pentatonic scale. Hakim kept ignoring him, but my friend kept asking him.

Finally, at the end of the class, my friend went up to him, and tapped him on the back, asking him, "How did Charlie Parker use the pentatonic scale in his solos"?

Hakim turned around, and punched him so hard that he knocked out a bunch of my friend's teeth! He sued Hakim for about 20K, and they kicked him out of the college.

Edited March 9, 2019 by sgcim

[7/4]

2 hours ago, sgcim said:

I was in his Free Jazz Ensemble at Nassau Community College. It was fun, but he took that shit a little too seriously. He told me once that I could "hear around corners".

I told him I couldn't make a rehearsal, because I had a 'club date', and he started yelling at me, telling me that I was prostituting myself, and kicked me out of the Ensemble.

A blues guitar player friend of mine took his Jazz Survey course, and kept asking him one day in class about Bird's use of the pentatonic scale. Hakim kept ignoring him, but my friend kept asking him.

Finally, at the end of the class, my friend went up to him, and tapped him on the back, asking him, "How did Charlie Parker use the pentatonic scale in his solos"?

Hakim turned around, and punched him so hard that he knocked out a bunch of my friend's teeth! He sued Hakim for about 20K, and they kicked him out of the college.

anger issues!

[Johnny D]

On 3/9/2019 at 5:54 AM, 7/4 said:

anger issues!

Wow! I took his Black Music course at Nassau Community College in 1971. It was a strange experience, but at least he didn't punch me!  I think he thought I was some jive-a** hippie who didn't know anything about Black music.  Then one day another student--who was a major jerk and bully, but I felt was getting a free pass because he was Black--started condemning classical music. I said,  "What about when Ornette Coleman writes for string quartets and orchestras?" and his reply was "I don't give a d### about no Ornette Coleman!" I didn't find out until later that Chambers/Hakim had extensively studied classical composers, composed for orchestras, and was friends with Ornette. So after that, he started grudgingly cutting me some slack. The next year, I switched to Adelphi University and was surprised to see him teaching there. I'm surprised they hired him after hearing how he left Nassau Community.