Billy Cobham

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Billy Cobham bigraphy, stories - American jazz drummer

Billy Cobham : biography

May 16, 1944 –

William Emanuel "Billy" Cobham (born May 16, 1944 in Panama) is a Panamanian American jazz drummer, composer and bandleader, who permanently relocated to Switzerland during the late 1970s.[ allmusic Billy Cobham Biography]

Coming to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with Mahavishnu Orchestra, Allmusic’s reviewer claims Cobham is "generally acclaimed as fusion’s greatest drummer with an influential style that combines explosive power and exacting precision.

Biography

Early life and career

Born in Panama, Cobham’s family moved to New York City during his early childhood. A drummer from his youth, Cobham attended New York’s High School of Music and Art, graduating in 1962.

He played in a U.S. Army Band from 1965 to 1968. Following his discharge, Cobham joined an ensemble led by pianist Horace Silver for about a year, also playing or recording with saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, organist Shirley Scott, and guitarist George Benson.

Jazz fusion work

Cobham branched out to jazz fusion, which blended elements of jazz, rock and roll and funk, playing and recording with the Brecker Brothers (notably in their 1970-founded group Dreams), and guitarist John Abercrombie, before recording and touring extensively with trumpeter Miles Davis. Cobham’s work with Davis appears on A Tribute to Jack Johnson (1971), among other recordings.

Cobham is one of the first drummers to play open-handed lead: a drummer that plays on a right-handed set but leads with his left hand on the hi-hat instead of crossing over with his right (and also has his ride cymbal on the left side, instead of the traditional right). He typically plays with multiple toms and double bass drums and was well known in the 1970s for his large drum kits.

In 1970, Cobham worked on guitarist John McLaughlin’s album My Goal’s Beyond. McLaughlin and Cobham co-founded Mahavishnu Orchestra, a definitive jazz fusion ensemble. Cobham toured extensively from 1971 to 1973 with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, who released two studio albums The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) and Birds of Fire (1973) and one live album Between Nothingness and Eternity (1973). The original studio versions of tunes on the live album were later released as The Lost Trident Sessions in 1999.

In May 1973, while still with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham recorded his first solo album, Spectrum with keyboardist Jan Hammer, from the Mahavishnu Orchestra, guitarist Tommy Bolin, who later played with hard rock band Deep Purple, and bassist Lee Sklar.

Just before the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s last touring leg, in late 1973, Cobham recorded and toured with guitarists Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin, in concerts which featured material from their album Love Devotion Surrender (1973), and Cobham’s own material.

As bandleader and composer, Cobham recorded a number of other ground-breaking fusion records during the ’70s, Crosswinds (1974), Total Eclipse (1974) and A Funky Thide of Sings (1975). You can also hear his 1970s playing well represented on The Billy Cobham – George Duke Band: "Live" on Tour in Europe (1976). It was on this tour that Billy reported (in a Down Beat interview) experiencing astral projection during shows, wherein he found himself hovering above and in front of his drums, watching himself play in ways he’d never thought of or executed previously.

In the 1970s, Cobham recorded extensively for the fusion-oriented CTI Records, founded by producer Creed Taylor. Also during that period he was a member of the New York Jazz Quartet.

In 1976 Cobham played drums on the album To the Heart by Mark-Almond (Jon Mark, Johnny Almond).

1980s work and later

[[Baku Jazz Festival 2007]]

In 1980, he worked with Jack Bruce, in a band named Jack Bruce & Friends.

In 1984 he played in the band Bobby and the Midnites (which was the primary side project for Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead) with among others Dave Garland, Bobby Cochran, Kenny Gradney (of Little Feat) and recorded the album Where the Beat Meets the Street (1984).