|
Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZCOBHAM, Billy(b 16 May 1944, Panama). Drummer, leader, composer. He sat in at age eight with his pianist father in NYC. While in U.S. Army he gigged with Billy Taylor, others '67; after discharge with Horace Silver quintet '68 including a European tour, Blue Note LPs Serenade To A Soul Sister, You Got To Take A Little Love. Also jingles, TV and film work (e.g. Shaft '71, music by Isaac Hayes). He formed the fusion band Dreams '69-70, which included the Brecker brothers; recorded with Miles Davis (Jack Johnson, Bitches Brew, others); he said recently that Davis 'wasn't difficult to work with. He didn't have to push anybody. You were there because he wanted you there. He was the one of the most effective managers of both people and music that I have ever seen.' He met John McLaughlin while recording BItches Brew, then played on his My Goal's Beyond on Douglas, and in his Mahavishnu Orchestra (The Inner Mounting Flame, Birds Of Fire) '71-3. His own bands included Spectrum '75; he produced. albums for Airto (Virgin Land), David Sancious (Forest Of Feelings). His own began albums on Atlantic: Spectrum c.1973 (quartet with Jan Hammer, later an ECM artist; later band named after the LP); Crosswinds, Total Eclipse, Shabazz (live at Montreux) '74, A Funky Thide Of Sings '75, all nine to eleven pieces with Brecker brothers; Live On Tour In Europe (quartet co-led by George Duke, who also played on Crosswinds); Live And Times '76. On CBS: Magic and Alivemutherforya '77, Simplicity Of Expression '77-8 (with large group). On Elektra the quartet Billy Cobham's Glass Menagerie made Observations '81, Smokin' '82 (live at Montreux), Picture This '87 on GRP with Grover Washington Jr. His impact on jazz/rock included a Jack Bruce album with Sancious I've Always Wanted To Do This '80. There were best-of CDs on CBS and Atlantic. Picture This '88 on GRP, with guests Randy Brecker, Washington etc, carried on in fusion mode; another album was The Traveler '93 on Evidence. Cobham's original Spectrum album was unusual because it included Tommy Bolan, who was known for rock with the James Gang and Deep Purple, and could not read music. 'I didn't have to think about it; I knew what he could do.' His object in Spectrum was to give people 'something to identify with' in music with space in it, as opposed to the intensity of McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra, or John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. In 2013 Cobham had been living in Switzerland for 25 years; he had a Billy Cobham band with sidemen from England and France, and an orchestra of 20-25 based in Frankfurt playing new compositions, and he was touring with Spectrum 40, with Jerry Goodman on violin, Dean Brown oin guitar, Gary Husband on keyboards and Ric Fierabracci on bass. (Quotes from a telephone interview with Dave Howell in early 2013, special to the Morning Call) |