BILLY COBHAM – ‘Spectrum’ 1973 Atlantic Records

“What is life but a spectrum and what is music but life itself” – William Cobham Jr.

Coming as soon, as it does, after a review of ‘Groove Merchant’ by Tommy Chase, it might seem a bit much to follow it up with one from another drummer with close connections to jazz. But Spectrum has as much to offer lovers of rock guitar as for jazz drumming.

Billy Cobham left the army in 1968 and joined the band of jazz pianist Horace Silver, playing and touring with him for most of that year. He also did a little work with George Benson among others, the first of many celebrated guitarists that he would play with.

His next project was a short lived stay with brotherly brass section, the Breckers and John Abercrombie in a band called Dreams that played music that melded rock and jazz together. In the meantime Miles Davis was also starting to move his sound away from pure jazz to combine it with rock attitude and amplified instruments – he had hired John McLaughlin among others to take part in his new master plan. The result was an album called ‘Bitches Brew’, on which Cobham appeared in part. He went to work for Davis full time shortly after, recording and touring until 1971, his presence was all over the palidromically titled ‘Live/Evil’ album.

Wanting to expand on the idea of bringing rock even further into jazz, Cobham and McLaughlin left Miles Davis to concentrate on an alternative enterprise along with keyboard player Jan Hammer. The Mahavishnu Orchestra was duly formed and, with the release of an album called ‘Inner Mounting Flame’, Cobham’s dominating style, coupled with his technical prowess came to fruition. This album has been acclaimed by many as a classic and the band’s reputation was consolidated and confirmed with 1972’s ‘Birds of Fire’ – an even bigger and perhaps even more resounding statement.

By 1973, the collaboration with McLaughlin ended and Cobham decided that he should be leading his own band and set about recording what was to remain his finest solo moment. The band that he assembled included Jan Hammer on piano (both electric and acoustic) & Moog synthesizer, Ron Carter on acoustic bass, Lee Sklar on Fender bass, Joe Farrell on flute, alto and soprano sax, Jimmy Owens on horns (flugelhorn & trumpet) and Ray Barretto on congas.

To find a guitarist to replace McLaughlin was always going to be a tough job because his ability was astonishing. Cobham wanted to create a sound with a bit more of an organic feel to it, one that perhaps required a little less effort to listen to than the technique heavy sound of the Mahavishnu albums – they do chuck it at you a bit! A little more emotion was required – soul, if you like.
Back in the period that the Mahavishnu Orchestra was being assembled, Cobham had been invited by Jan Hammer to help out with a recording of a Hammer tune (‘Sister Andrea’) on an album by flautist, Jeremy Steig. Another of the musicians playing on the session was Tommy Bolin, a guitarist from a band called Zephyr. Cobham must have liked what he heard because two years later, he invited Bolin to become key member of his band and he played on every track on Spectrum except one, where he was replaced by John Tropea.

The album was recorded at Electric Lady, the studio that Jimi Hendrix had built in New York, over three days in May 1973 and each track was captured live with very few overdubs being added later. Each track was divided by short interludes of solo drumming. The basic band tracks were all written by Cobham and were embellished by further in the studio just like the classic jazz sessions of old. Considering that, prior to the day the tape started to roll, there had only been one day of rehearsal, the resulting record is incredible.

The process of simplifying things and adding rock aggression and attitude to the sound paid off because the album was embraced by the rock fans of the day as well as the jazz-fusion crowd who had been buying the Mahavishnu and Miles Davis albums. Much of this success must be credited to Tommy Bolin, whose dependence on feel rather than the written score was pivotal to the sound. His and Jan Hammer’s natural ability to behave as mutual foils, bouncing off one another in fascinating musical interplay and Billy Cobham’s explosive attack made the album what it is.

The album’s opening statement is ‘Quadrant 4′ and it displays some of the best examples of that Bolin/Hammer relationship, each of them giving the other just enough elbow room to develop ideas around the central theme, while encouraging an ever more interesting response. All the while, Cobham drives the whole thing along with his trademark combination of power and finesse.
At the other end of the album is Red Baron, a complete opposite, to act as a parting shot – laid-back and relaxed in comparison.

Sandwiched between these two poles are several of the aforementioned solo percussion pieces, none of which are really long enough to put off anyone who groans at the thought of how a good gig can be spoiled by an overindulgent drum solo. The main tracks that these solos punctuate are all equally deserving of their places on the album but the one that stands out the most for many people would be ‘Stratus’.

‘Stratus’ is where the rock/funk/soul sensibility collides fully with the improvisational invention of great jazz musicianship and the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts. The infectious sound of the rhythm section here was sampled by Massive Attack for the hit they had in 1991 with ‘Safe from Harm’ from their first album ‘Blue Lines’.

You can hear the influence of this album in so many others that followed. My feeling is that it practically allowed Jeff Beck to reinvent his career as the new audience it created allowed him to musically go places that he may not have felt his traditional followers wanted him venture to. This is speculation, but it is noticeable that his style took a sharp swerve soon after this album was released.

After the recording was made Tommy Bolin joined The James Gang, then Deep Purple and also released two solo albums, one of which featured Jan Hammer. Hammer’s later career is well documented and Cobham went on to record many more solo albums, each one progressively losing just a little more of the fire and aggression displayed on Spectrum. None of them would match Spectrum for its completeness and influence.

This is one of those landmark albums that, as music lovers, we should all hear at least once. Most of us will want to hear it again, but if not you will have experienced something that set a standard that has rarely, if ever, been exceeded in its particular field. After all, you don’t have to love something to acknowledge that it’s outstanding. For those of us who do love it though, there always seems to be something new to hear that went unnoticed previously. The album never fails to entertain me and doesn’t feel like it has aged at all in the 37 years since its release.

Note: I used the word ‘Palindromically’ near the beginning of this piece – not one I’ve had cause to use too often, but just during final checking of facts in preparation for this review going to press, I happened to pop into Billy Cobham’s website - http://www.billycobham.com/html/index.php It turns out that he has a new album (released just 5 days ago in the US).  Rather spookily, its title is ‘Palindrome’.

Chris Bennett

Billy Cobham – ‘Spectrum’ 1973, Atlantic Records Catalogue No. K 40506

CD available as Catalogue No. 7268-2

Sound Quality 9 out of 10 (1st pressing vinyl copy reviewed)

Music Quality 10 out of 10

System used: Michell Gyrodec/Zeta/Koetsu Black, Bent Audio Mu/ARC SP8, Mark Levinson ML9/ML11, Mirage M3si

Source of Music reviewed….. Reviewer’s own items

© Text Copyright 2010 Chris Bennett.

Album cover art work © Copyright belongs to the original publishers.

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