Blue Bossa, Kenny Dorham

Blue Bossa, by Kenny Dorham, is a piece that blends hard bop and bossanova.

The chord structure is the following:

| Cm6 | Cm6 | Fm7 | Fm7 | Dm7b5 | G7#5#9 | Cm6 | Cm6 | Ebm7 | Ab7 | Dbmaj7| Dm7b5 | G7#5#9 | Cm6 | (G7) |

Its first appearance in an album was in Joe Henderson’s ‘Page One’.

Apart from the original version, there’s just one version I recommend, which is spectacular: Michel Camilo’s version with piano and congas. He’s able to give the piece a latin flavour, which I really enjoy. Also, with his peculiar left hand bass-chord technique, Michel Camilo (who seems to have two brains, one for each hand) created a true jazz masterpiece.

Here’s his original studio version released in 1998 with Mongo Santamaria:

Also, there is a live one of this same version, where Michel Camilo performs it with Giovanni Hidalgo playing congas. I personally transcribed and performed part of this version, and it has been great fun.

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