Billy Cobham Everything You Wanted To Know About Six

I was at a Bill Frisell show and I asked the question to the group of us sitting there about the style Fusion.  For people who don't know what Fusion is; its a type of music that blended Jazz with Rock, Funk, and R&B.  People like Miles Davis, John McLaughlin, Jack Bruce, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Bill Bruford, John Abercrombie, Larry Coryell, Allan Holdsworth, Jan Hammer, Wayne Shorter and so many others I will forget to mention them (please forgive me). These musicians made some great music together and on their own.  Take for instance Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, and John McLaughlin.  They are 3/5th of The Mahavishnu Orchestra.  A band that not only defined Fusion, but is considered one of the best of the genre.  They are also my favorite out of all the Fusion groups of the time.

Two of the members of Mahavishnu Orchestra make an appearance on a fusion classic called Spectrum.  This is a solo album by the drummer Billy Cobham.  Along with Billy Cobham, and Jan Hammer the band takes shape with Tommy Bolin and Lee Sklar both top notch guitar and bass players.  Tommy Bolin was in a variety of bands including James Gang (after Joe Walsh) and projects before he landed a gig with Deep Purple after the departure of Richie Blackmore.  The tenure was short lived lasting two studio albums and one live album.  He also made an solo album called Private Eyes that is a classic among guitar aficionados before his untimely death in December of 1976. Lee Sklar on the other hand played with James Taylor and was a in demand session player that still works to this day.

When Spectrum came out, it changed the way Fusion was heading and made fusion more then just a fad, but a style that changed Jazz for the future.  It was not a generational style of music, it's a style that crossed many generations and reached new audiences. What I noticed was that Fusion had love hate feeling in my family.  My dad and my uncle were pure Jazz, nothing more.  Sure they liked Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears and such, but it was the bands that were more electric like Mahavishnu and Weather Report and Return To Forever that they said there was too much electric instruments.  My other uncle liked the later fusion.  Chick Corea Elektric Band and The Rippingtons were what he liked along with those bands of the 80's and 90's.

When I bought my copy of Spectrum I played it for my dad.  He loved the guitar, but to much keyboard for him.  I did the same for the others in my family, one uncle hated it.  It's noise he would tell me and walk away.  The other uncle liked it, but Billy was really too aggressive on the drums.  He was overpowering to just show off.  I did not agree with that uncle, to me he was a drum hero to follow.  The music was new and fresh to me and I liked it.  It was sharp contrast to Billy's other drumming job with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.  Spectrum seemed to be the perfect fit for all these musicians.

After a few listens I had more and more respect for Jan Hammer.  I knew his playing with Jeff Beck and Mahavisnu, but I still had his music for the TV show Miami Vice.  I had to detach that out of my head and really give him a better listen.  To this day I think Jan Hammer is one of the best electric keyboard players out there. After a few more listens this album grew and grew on me.  When I started talking about it with other like minded people they mentioned how much of a talent Tommy Bolin was on guitar.  He could change the course of any album he guested on.  His work with Deep Purple was no Richie Blackmore, but sure gave Deep Purple a new creative spark.  It's too bad it didn't last.

All this creativity was recorded in just a few days.  It sounds impossible now, but this album was born to be made that quickly.  It was not rushed, but between the great playing and the improvisation that each member does makes the album very powerful.  Reading up on the album I came across a a passage that said the music was recored live in the studio.  That energy created something special.  Also on the album that energy translates to some guests on the album such as, Ron Carter, Joe Farrell, and Ray Barretto.  These three are no slouches to the Jazz world.  Ron Carter also played with Miles Davis.  Joe Farrell played with the other fusion giant Return To Forever and Ray played not only great music with a latin tinge, but also was on Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue.  Midnight Blue is by far a top five Jazz Guitar album for me.

If your looking to leave your average music listening behind.  That is if you want to be daring and different, then listen to Spectrum.  With such a great line up of musicians and talented ones at that, you can't go wrong.  It might be a tough listen at first, but no album is perfect at first listen.  Take a listen to Billy Cobham just blow your mind on drums.  Take Tommy Bolin awesome solo's and guitar work a bit more seriously and listen to Jan Hammer before he was a TV theme music dude.  All this together makes an album worthy of repeated listens.  A an album head over heals better then most and a joy to listen to again and again. By the way, the group of friends I was with answered the question with how much they loved Spectrum. Enjoy!!