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Billy Cobham: Pressestimmen| Art of 5 | Live at Conga Room | Still taking no prisoners | Erfurt/Jazzmeile Billy Cobham and The Art of 5Jazz Alley; Seattle March 6th, 2003 I came to Billy Cobham not through Mahavishnu, but through video footage of him playing with Horace Silver’s group in the late 60s. Initially I mistook him for Roger Humphries, who of course had appeared on some of Silver’s well-known albums during that decade. I was later corrected by a friend of mine, who not only told me that it was indeed Cobham, but that he “swung his ass off.” This comment was delivered with a mix of reverence and surprise, as if my friend couldn’t quite see how the volatile, propulsive Cobham of Mahavishnu could also have provided the swinging and funky undergirding for a group like Silver’s. By Christopher Jones
Soon enough I got into Mahavishnu, and my memories of Cobham the swinger quickly evaporated. Here was a drummer with power, technique, finesse–well, you’ve heard it all before. The main thing is that I forgot Cobham could play “jazz” and play it well–that he could, as my friend put it, “swing his ass off.” Not that I believed that he couldn’t; I just labeled him as a fusion guy and left it at that. And my opinion was further corroborated when I heard albums like Spectrum and Crosswinds. Then I heard Flight Time, a live record from the early 80s. Cobham swings quite ably on that album, which served as a reminder to me that he wasn’t just a “fusion guy.” It also gave me the feeling that I should go see Billy Cobham should I get the chance. Which I did, last night at Seattle’s Jazz Alley. The group is call Billy Cobham’s Art of 5 and features Donald Harrison, Guy Barker, Julian Joseph, and Robert Hurst. I could tell from the line-up not to expect any Mahavishnu covers or “out there” fusion excursions, and what I got was what I expected: well-rendered post-bop with tasteful flourishes courtesy of Cobham. He really is a superb technician, and he follows soloists in ways I had yet to hear other drummers even attempt. He also seems to have incorporated the vocabulary of his “fusion” drumming into that of his “jazz” drumming, as evidenced by his fiery, unexpected press rolls and his rapid, quick-as-lightning kick drum hits. The group really is a class act and acts as a fine summation of all things good about jazz. Seeing Cobham play with Mahavishnu would’ve been preferable, but seeing as I’d yet to be born when they were a group, the Art of 5 is fine with me. If and when they come to your town, you should check them out. copyright © 1996-2003 
Conga Room, Los Angeles 04/02/2002During the brief period when ''fusion'' was not a dirty word (roughly just over a year between '72 and '73), drummer's drummer Billy Cobh4m released one of the most influential albums of the genre, Spectrum. The currently getting the DVD 5.1 surround-sound upgrade courtesy of Rhino Records, and to commemorate and promote this event, Cobham has assembled a quartet that closely resembles the tag team that bashed out Spectrum all those years ago. With the help of hindsight, Spectrum and Cobham's bandleader instincts can be seen as even more progressive than they were originally considered. While most fusion outfits got farther and farther out, playing increasingly impossible charts and tagging on lofty conceptual themes borrowed from their prog/art rock brethren, Cobham's first solo outing Spectrum utilized a more direct approach. High-energy, very robust, extremely funky, and more hard-rocking than its contemporaries, Spectrum took the metallic K.O. of his former unit, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and gave it a hyper-funky/R&B edge. Also, Mahavishnu and their legion of knock-offs were mostly jazz-schooled players trying to squeeze out mock-rock tones and licks while maintaining a jazzman's fluidity and dexterity. Conversely, on Spectrum, Cobham wisely added a rock guitarist capable of stretching into the fusion realm while keeping an authentic rocker's bite and bluster. That guitarist was the late Tommy Bolas and Spectrum contained what are arguably his most devastating performances. With Spectrum as the template Cobham's show at L.A.'S Conga Room was a riveting set of head -spinning chops, lightning -fast solos, and Cobham's trademark ambidextrous double- bass drumming (or triple bass drurnming , if one considers the third bass drum he uses as a floor torn ) , Guitar was handled by Dean Brown, who, to paraphrase Archie Bell, not only plays but dances as good as he walks. Maybe an Overstatement, as his good foot got his cords tangled in pedals once in a while, but in keeping with Cobham's attitude ever since departing the ultra self-conscious Mahavishnu, he could play like mad and still Smile and joke around . Gary Husband handled the keys, and his synch work, while deft as hell, was sometimes so busy that it was impossible to tell where phrases started and ended. With the help of hindsight, Spectrum and Cobham's bandleader instincts can be seen as even more progressive than they were originally considered. Of particular interest was bassist Lee Sklar who joins Cobham on this tour for the first time since Spectrum was tracked back in 1973. (If you have any California ' 70s folk-rock or Steely Dan, or anything concocted with ''L.A. session players'' from the '70s or '80s then you have plenty of Lee Sklar in your collection. ) He didn't slap the bass, and he did no more than two Larry Graham-style string pops, preferring instead to just feather the bass for those extra-smooth low tones, and while he maintained a groove that was seemingly simple compared to the chaos around him half of what he did was just make it look easy. Most players just don't have Sklar's natural feel that causes everything to fall into place and into the groove (even if that groove is in 7/4) . Make no mistake, though - - it was Cobham's band and Cobham's show. He was happy to share the spotlight, but when he put his head down and started stirring the soup, all eyes were on the drummer. The king of the insanely fast single-stroke and the master of the double-bass locomotive, Cobham can run you over like a freight train and then prop you back up on a greasy groove, or, as in ''Red Baron,'' do all of the above in one piece. Comprising the entire original Spectrum album with a few other highlights tossed in, the show's two sets were a revisit to fusions glory days, with no apologies and precious little nostalgia in evidence. Spectrum has stood up over the years on its own merits, end perhaps has survived with dignity as few albums of the maligned fusion genre have. The Crowd, mostly guys (some with actual dates) and most odd enough to have been there the first time around, grooved and bobbed with 'the same open-mouthed wonder that is the trademark of the fusion fanatic. More than a few celebs were in the house, too--Gorillez inspiration Clint Eastwood, comedian Paul Rodriquez, drummer Simon Phillips, Doors Guitarist Robby Krieger, and a better-than-average Trent Reznor look a like. All were groovin' and bobbin' along with the rest some with their mouths open , The room built to a fever pitch--no mean feat, given the cumulative age of the attendees--when the band charged into the encore ''Quadrant 4"... a piece which is essentially the fusion equivalent of Slayer. Cobham took the lead in this double-bass onslaught, showing how he can mix up the beats and the fills while still chugging nonstop with his feet down below. Husband and brown played the head melody just a bit too loose which caused the piece to lose some of its punch, but that's quibbling, innit ? It is inspiring to see the groove converge at a point of such high-level musicianship. Years of punk-rock damage, alt-rock self-loathing, and even jazz revisionism have made such funky-but-chic workouts seem hopelessly Out of step. Seeing it done right and with such vitality made it hard to argue against -indeed, Cobham's original vision Still seems a few years ahead of its time
"The Hollywood Reporter" - Jazz Fusion Is Not Dead Billy Cobham: Still taking no prisoners.One of the bands that was opening for Billy Cobham's Spectrum on their tour in 2002 was called Acoustic Jazz is Dead, and the night Cobham's quartet visited the Conga Room on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, the visiting bunch might have been called Jazz Fusion is Not Dead. By Tony Gieske Cobham, the drummer who many identify with the Miles Davis ''Bitches Brew'' sides or the Mahavishnu Orchestra of the 1970s, opened his set that April night with a roaring example of what he's up to now, which is a lot like what he was up to in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, only bigger and badger, faster and more furious, and very much alive. Cobham's solo work, though, was judiciously rationed out and not overabundant. These days, after a long residency in Europe, Cobham gives his stuff more light and shadow, more poise, more musicality. It is not so damn-the-torpedoes as on the 1973 album that the tour is supporting, ''Spectrum.'' Not that he takes any prisoners with this edition of Spectrum, as he calls his little band. The beard of his lanky bassist of those 1970s days, Lee Sklar, is thirty years longer and whiter, and instead of Jan Hammer on keyboards and Tommy Bolin on guitar, Cobham's got Gary Husband on keyboarded and Dean Brown on guitar. These two full-maned young men hewed to the classic Cobham groove, which is not so much a groove but a lively dance of death. Husband threw off spectacular and menacing billows of rich and scary color, and these were answered by Brown with cataracts of acid light that shivered and buzzed in an even more hair raising and satisfactory fashion. Supporting or leading them, Sklar and Cobham understood each other like brothers in the bond of the baby boomer bounce, an exaggerated two-beat meter on which they rested a number of quasi-Latin slaves or rhythmic patterns. These varied in numeric designation -- some were fast, some were slow -- but they all give the ear pretty much the same impression of fierce but somehow empty excitement.
Erfurt/Jazzmeile
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Billy
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