# Ndugu Chancler, Masterful Jazz and Session Drummer, dies at 65: Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2018/02/06/ndugu-chancler-masterful-jazz-and-session-drummer-dies-at-65-video/
- Published: 2018-02-06T09:04:44+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**Credits included Miles, Herbie Hancock, Michael Jackson and many, many more. Leon“
Ndugu” Chancler, a world-class drummer whose remarkably wide-ranging talents took
him into the worlds of jazz, rock, pop, R&B, funk, disco and even country music,
died Feb. 3, as reported by _Rolling Stone_. Chancler was 65.**

If he’d done nothing else, his drumming on Michael Jackson’s 1982 multiplatinum “
Billie Jean” would have guaranteed Chancler a place in the music history books. 
But that barely scratched the enormous surface. In jazz alone, Chancler worked with
Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Thelonious Monk, the Crusaders, Patrice
Rushen, Hubert Laws, Stanley Clarke, Eddie Harris, Julian Priester, Joe Henderson,
Harold Land, George Benson, Bobby Hutcherson, Jean-Luc Ponty and many others, including
Weather Report (1975’s _Tale Spinnin’_). He recorded and toured with George Duke
from 1972-80.

Chancler’s list of credits in pop, rock, blues and R&B is equally astonishing, and
includes the Temptations, John Lee Hooker, Tina Turner, Carlos Santana (with whom
he toured in the mid-’70s; the guitarist recommended him to Weather Report), Lionel
Richie, Kenny Rogers, Donna Summer, Frank Sinatra and, of course, Jackson (he also
played on two other _Thriller_ tracks, plus one on _Bad_).

A number of fellow artists took to social media to express their condolences and
offer tributes. Guitarist Vernon Reid called Chancler “an incredible musician, a
unique stylist … who left an indelible mark on me & many of my generation.” Questlove
posted that Chancler “sparked a revolution of dance madness breakbeat mania.”

Leon “Ndugu” Chancler was born July 1, 1952, in Shreveport, La. He took up drumming
at 13 and landed gigs with Latin-jazz percussionist Willie Bobo and Gerald Wilson’s
big band while still in school. Upon obtaining a degree in music education from 
California State University, Dominguez Hills, Chancler turned professional, moving
with fluidity between vastly diverse projects throughout the rest of his life.

A three-time Grammy nominee, Chancler played on a number of movie soundtracks, including
_An Officer and a Gentleman_, _Indecent Proposal_ and _The Color Purple_, and served
as a composer (Santana, the Dazz Band, George Duke) and producer (Flora Purim, Bill
Summers) for others.

He recorded several albums as a leader and co-leader, including _Do I Make You Feel
Better?_ (with the Chocolate Jam Co., 1980), _Old Friends, New Friends_ (1989), 
_The Meeting_ (with Patrice Rushen, Ernie Watts and Alphonso Johnson, 1990), _Jazz
Straight Up_ (with Stanley Clarke and Patrice Rushen, 2001), _Old Friends Live _(
on which he played vibraphone, 2010) and_ 3 Brave Souls_ (with John Beasley and 
Darryl Jones, 2012).

As an educator, Chancler held a faculty position in the jazz studies department 
at the USC Thornton School of Music, and was on staff at the United States Percussion
Camp at Eastern Illinois University, the Stanford University Jazz Workshop, Jazz
America and the Thelonious Monk Foundation.

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