Cobham Spectrum

Drummer Billy Cobham was fresh from his success with the Mahavishnu Orchestra when he recorded his debut album, which is still his best. Most of the selections showcase Cobham in a quartet with keyboardist Jan Hammer, guitarist Tommy Bolin, and electric bassist Lee Sklar. Two other numbers include Joe Farrell on flute and soprano and trumpeter Jimmy Owens with guitarist John Tropea, Hammer, bassist Ron Carter, and Ray Barretto on congas. The generally high-quality compositions (which include "Red Baron") make this fusion set a standout, a strong mixture of rock-ish rhythms and jazz improvising.

Drummer Billy Cobham was fresh from his success with the Mahavishnu Orchestra when he recorded his debut album, which is still his best. Most of the selections showcase Cobham in a quartet with keyboardist Jan Hammer, guitarist Tommy Bolin, and electric bassist Lee Sklar. Two other numbers include Joe Farrell on flute and soprano and trumpeter Jimmy Owens with guitarist John Tropea, Hammer, bassist Ron Carter, and Ray Barretto on congas…

Billy Cobham, the pioneering jazz-rock fusion drummer who left all his rivals and imitators in the dust when he surfaced in the 1970s, always sounded like a complete musician rather than simply a technical miracle. Approaching 70, he still does. Cobham and a hard-rocking quartet are at Ronnie Scott's, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the drummer's bandleading debut album, Spectrum, by playing most of the music from it, and a little new material besides.
What made this flat-out show so much more than a routine tribute-band trot through a famous tracklist was the enthusiastic drive of the band.

Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music
There’s no question that Billy Cobham is one of the most talented and influencial drummers on the planet. I had high hopes going into this one that it would be another “Birds Of Fire” shred-fest.

Drummer Billy Cobham was fresh from his success with the Mahavishnu Orchestra when he recorded his debut album, which is still his best. Most of the selections showcase Cobham in a quartet with keyboardist Jan Hammer, guitarist Tommy Bolin, and electric bassist Lee Sklar. Two other numbers include Joe Farrell on flute and soprano and trumpeter Jimmy Owens with guitarist John Tropea, Hammer, bassist Ron Carter, and Ray Barretto on congas. The generally high-quality compositions (which include "Red Baron") make this fusion set a standout, a strong mixture of rock-ish rhythms and jazz improvising.

Hardcore fans of 1970s jazz-funk, look no further. Sworn enemies of it, consider making an exception. This five-disc set repackages Mahavishnu Orchestra drummer Billy Cobham's prolific early bandleading years between 1973 and 1975, and it bristles with rock-guitar fireworks, hyperactive drums and synths, and exclamatory James Brown-like horn riffs. But Cobham was, and remains, a subtle musical thinker as well as a phenomenal drummer, and the set harnesses bold ideas, thematic variety, and some awesome soloing from the likes of the Brecker Brothers, guitarists John Abercrombie and John Scofield, and the little-known but gifted Bulgarian keyboardist Milcho Leviev. The earliest session, Spectrum (featuring soon-to-be-Deep Purple guitarist Tommy Bolin), is the leanest and meanest.

If ever anybody deserved a two-disc anthology of his offerings as a solo artist it's fusion drummer Billy Cobham. After making his stellar debut with John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham made eight records for Atlantic from 1973-1978. To varying degrees, these recordings were true statements on the state of jazz-rock fusion. Many blame Cobham for being a member of the technical-expertise-is-everything school, and to a degree it may be true. But the tracks collected here by Barry Benson and Nick Sahakian provide evidence of something else entirely: that along with technical expertise in spades, Cobham had soul, groove, and a handle on how powerful rock & roll could contribute to jazz improvisation if harnessed in the right way. And every single track on these two discs does exactly that and more.