Entertainment For Lively Minds
It's Billy Cobham... with an eight-year version of 'Toad'!
Some kind and discerning soul over at youtube has compiled this fabulous 35 minute / 8 year montage of Billy Cobham drum solos (okay, not even Billy's solos ACTUALLY last eight years!) - from his work with the Horace Silver Quintet in Denmark 1968 through the Mahavishnu Orchestra in Germany, France and England and on to his solo band at the Rainbow and a duo with George Duke in Switzerland 1976.
It's mesmerising. For those only familiar with the double bass drum/multi tom-rattling behemoth of the Mahavishnu era, his small kit musicality with Horace Silver will astound and delight. For MO buffs, the extract from 'One Word' in Germany is a delight - as it's an extract from that show that's only recently begun to circulate (I myself - yes, even I! - haven't yet acquired a DVD of the extended, though still incomplete, version of that broadcast).
Enjoy!
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I've taken a bite
but will have to come back to this. Great idea.
Nowadays, drummers like Dave Weckl can construct a solo that is every bit as musical and enjoyable for non-drummers as this. But back in the day, there were only a few who had either the technique or the ability to get such a variety of tones from their drumkit.
I agree, Nick...
...it's a sequence to watch and luxuriate over when the mood's right. He's as fascinating to watch as Hendrix, I think. I'd never noticed his switching of grips with the left hand before seeing the Horace Silver clip - I'm not sure he ever did that in the MO (probably no need/opportunity to play at that softness of touch there), but his mastery of technique and musicality coupled with explosive energy is amazing. Plenty of people have one or two of those attributes but not many, I suspect, have all three.
Now Colin
this my friend is a solo, with an absolute master of his craft getting an audience eating out of the palm of his hand and his thumb. Your Orchestra is ok but they are really no Level 42 are they?
Mark King
Just for you, Dave...
...I'll give the Pummelling-Thumb-meister's track a spin (but not just now: it's half past midnight and my cat's trying to sleep!).
However - and I fear I must break this to you gently - the Kingster is a devotee of the Mahavishnu.
Here's an extract from a recent online interview:
"I love the digital download thing personally. How cool is it to hear a piece of long forgotten music and then be able to go and get it right away! I’m terrible for over-doing the iTunes store, especially when I’ve had a glass of wine or two in the evenings! But I also remember the real thrill of going into town and ordering a Mahavishnu Orchestra album on vinyl when I was 14 years old, waiting impatiently for a week or two for it to arrive, then putting it on the stereo and devouring every word on the sleeve and liner notes. Great days indeed."
As a multi-talented musician and prolific bass guitarist, who has influenced you over the years?
"That’s very kind of you to say so, thanks. My first big heroes were Cream, fantastic players and great tunes, then Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Rich, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Joe Zawinul, and all the amazing fusion musicians from the 60’s and 70’s. I feel very lucky to have been born when all this stuff was just coming online."
I fear, Dave, you may need that darkened room again...
Colin
this is fantastic news and confirms my long held belief that it's all just music. We have found the centre of our very own Venn diagram and who would have thought it would have been an 80's, mulletted, slap bass, funk master from the Isle Of Wight? Lessons in love indeed.
Aaaaaaaaarghhhhh!!!!!!
...Dave, we may need to Kiss This King Goodbye...*
(* Or am I totally misremembering a Del title there?)
I believe
Mark King actually started out playing the drums. His hero was Lenny White of Return To Forever. MK plays all the drums on his solo album.
did you mean mesmerising
or mermerising ?
No Junior, I mean...
...La Mere De La Mer-merising!*
(* obscure MO-centric bit of wordplay...but you surely expect nothing less by now?)
I saw Billy Cobham at Dingwalls in the 1980s...
standing next to me was Bill Oddie, fusion nut.
Was he doing...
...the Jazz-Funky Gibbon?
Anyway... I thought MojoWorking was the Zelig of rock, Crowthmeister, but you're certainly giving him a run for his money...