Blue Bossa

"Blue Bossa" is a minor-key bossa nova by the trumpeter Kenny Dorham, recorded in 1963 on Joe Henderson's first album. This page has the Blue Bossa chords and a backing track you can slow down and transpose.

Who wrote "Blue Bossa"

Kenny Dorham wrote it. It is an instrumental with no lyric. It was recorded for Blue Note in June 1963 on Page One, the debut album of the tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson, with Dorham on trumpet, McCoy Tyner on piano, Butch Warren on bass and Pete La Roca on drums. It came out at the height of the bossa nova craze in American jazz, and it soon became one of the first tunes students learn.

Recordings that made it a standard

• Joe Henderson, Page One (1963) — the original, with Dorham and Henderson sharing the melody in a relaxed, light Latin groove.