Billy Cobham #37 / Dreams - Mahavishnu Orchestra - Horace Silver
100 drummers I’ve seen in my lifetime
Billy Cobham
After my road gigs and residency in West Palm Beach, Biloxi Mississippi and Little Rock Arkansas, I returned to Geneva, Florida. January 1971
It wasn’t long before I started playing at a nightclub called Sheiks, in Orlando. The group was Hammond organ, drums and vocals. I knew the organist and his vocalist, wife from my earlier 1969-1970, residency in West Palm Beach. They were very good. I don’t know why I didn’t continue with them. Maybe they were going out on the road.
The club I was playing, Sheiks, was in an isolated part of Orlando. It was what was known as a “Show Club” lounge.
The main attraction was a “show band” called The Executives. They were a four-piece rhythm section and 3 horns. Their image was like their name, clean cut with Brooks Brothers suits. They were good musicians and the audience liked them. They had routines and did comedy. (Very-professional)
When I was with Vic Waters, playing at Soul City in Fort Lauderdale, we drove to another club to catch the last set of The Mob. The Mob was a top-notch show band, very popular and highly paid for that kind of club entertainment. They were highly successful.
That nightclub scene, with different genres of entertainment was an interesting experience. There were dance bands and show bands, that also played dance music. The clubs and rooms were different, as was the audience and venues payroll. Show clubs were known to pay more money for bands.
My worldly possessions in those days were frugal, still are. My main items were my drumset and record player. I wasn’t an audiophile collector. I bought albums for music entertainment and education. Over in Orlando, there was a record store called East-West. A great shop that I began to visit and buy albums. The husband and wife owners were very progressive with the music they sold. I bought a record by a group called Dreams (Columbia, 1970) without knowing anything about them.
I was a fan of Blood Sweat & Tears and Chicago. There were a few other horn groups with records in those days. Cold Blood, and Chase. Groups with horns on their record include The Grass Roots, Ides of March, Spiral Staircase, The Outsiders. Maynard Ferguson and Don Ellis were in the jazz big band category.
When I began to listen to my Dreams record, I knew there was something different about the music and the quality of the musicians. Of coarse, my radar is always listening first to the drummer. The drum performance, tuning and sound was quite different. I was still listening to Mitch Mitchell with Jimi Hendrix, Ginger Baker - Cream and John Bonham with the first Led Zeppelin record.
That period of time, the early 70s produced an abundance of new music, from a variety of groups. Music became more experimental, drawing from different styles of jazz, blues, folk, county and rock. College and commercial FM Radio stations were also influencing the sound and production of music.
Jazz, was beginning to be more accepted in popular music.
Dreams, was an American Jazz-Rock group. Prominent members included John Abercrombie, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Don Grolnick and drummer Billy Cobham.
The first record by Dreams is a very nice collection of tracks. It does contain musical aspects that push the envelope of being non-commercial, saxophone and drum solos.
Though Dreams was on Columbia Records, they would never achieve commercial success. I never heard them on the radio, like Chicago or BS&T. That was the key.
I listened to that record many times. As I mentioned, I knew there was something different about the drumming. In 1971, I didn’t have access to Wikipedia to find out the history of a band or musician. I didn’t know that Billy Cobham was a real jazz drummer, recently leaving the band of Horace Silver. I’d never seen a Youtube video of him playing left handed ride cymbal – high hat and right feet. What the kids today call open-handed style.
It wouldn’t be till Mahavishnu Orchestra performed on a television show, I could visually see how unique Billy Cobham was. By then, he was reinventing the art of playing the drumset.
I eventually saw The Mahavishnu Orchestra. I’d worn out their albums and 8 track tapes. Their first two records are my favorite. The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) and Birds of Fire (1973) have their own identity. Billy Cobham’s drum kit for the first record was single bass drum. Birds of Fire, was double bass drum. When I saw him, he was playing the Fibes clear double bass drum kit. (Mind-blowing as they say)
When Billy Cobham started producing and releasing his own records, I continued to be a big fan. I bought every record he produced as a leader or sideman. Those records he performed on for the CTI label were all very good. His sound and playing was different, but it was great to hear him conform to the music.
I’ve also seen and heard his groups on several occasions, his master class drum clinics as a Tama endorser.
Billy Cobham is still active, performing gigs around the world.
One of the all time great drummers of the world.