BILLY COBHAM

Spectrum 50 Project

Some records change the course of popular music. Revolutionary works that mark a before and after in history. One such record was Spectrum, Panamanian-American drummer and composer Billy Cobham’s 1973 debut album. A combination of genius and intuition (the songs were almost all recorded in just a few takes) that marked one of the highest pinnacles of jazz-fusion, embodied here in a blessed alliance with rock, soul and funk. Bands like Massive Attack and popular video games like Grand Theft Auto IV took good note of songs like “Stratus”, its irresistible central theme. Together with the piano and synthesizers of Jan Hammer (Mahavishnu Orchestra), the guitar of Tommy Bolin (who went on to join Deep Purple) and the bass of Lee Sklar, Billy Cobham’s debut album has become one of the philosophers’ stones of jazz-fusion. A masterpiece that is now fifty years old and the perfect excuse for him to visit us, although his career since then has included nearly forty more albums and collaborations on albums by Miles Davis, George Benson, Sonny Rollins, Eumir Deodato, John McLaughlin and Tyler, The Creator.