My introduction to Billy Cobham was through a colleague who worked at a record store with me when I was finishing college in the late 80s and early 90s. I knew little about him or Tony Williams (my all-time favorite drummer, EVERRRR). But I was hooked after my co-worker let me borrow several of his albums featuring Billy. The first song I played was Quadrant 4 from the Spectrum album. Incredible!
Several things about his style were attractive to me. I am a fan of drummers with power, fire, and groove. Billy had that, plus a deep pocket and incredible chops. He set up his drums differently than most other drummers and played open-handed. In addition, Billy was also a great composer.
After devouring all of his solo records, I began to learn about Mahavishnu Orchestra. I became obsessed with fusion for a minute or two, and after I moved to NYC, I played in a few bands that dipped their toes into complicated music.
At the end of the song 'One World' from the Birds OF Fire album is a drum solo by Billy. He plays a rhythm on the drums that the band mimics as they prepare to play the coda. The notes they play are so rhythmically complex that I can't figure it out, but I decided to try something similar when writing a song for a band I was in at the time called Darediableo in 2002. Instead of a nine-minute odyssey, we wrote a twenty-four-second fusion extravaganza. I suggest we end the tune by playing a decreasing number of notes: 6,5,4,3,2,1. We managed to pull it off, I think.
Listen to what Billy does HERE:
