Billy Cobham

Recording with Miles Davis and then starring with the Mahavishnu Orchestra in the '70s, drummer Billy Cobham was a key figure in the development of jazz-rock fusion.

Learning to play the timbales by age three, Billy Cobham moved with his mother from Panama to New York when he was about seven to join his pianist father. In 1959 he enrolled at the High School of Music and Art. After serving in the armed forces, he worked in the city's jazz circles, playing with the Billy Taylor Trio and the New York Jazz Sextet in the late ’60s. In 1968 he earned his first session credit, George Benson’s Giblet Gravy, followed by two albums with Horace Silver. He has since played on numerous recordings, backing James Brown, Quincy Jones, Carlos Santana, Carly Simon, Sam and Dave, and Larry Coryell, among others. In 1969, after stints with Stanley Turrentine and Kenny Burrell, he joined the Miles Davis band that virtually invented jazz rock; ultimately, he played on eight Davis albums, including the landmark Bitches Brew. Concurrently, with Michael and Randy Brecker, he founded the jazz-rock group Dreams, which recorded two albums before disbanding in 1970.

In 1971 Cobham joined fellow Davis alumnus John McLaughlin in his Mahavishnu Orchestra, staying with the pioneering fusion group until the end of 1973 [see entry]. He then went solo, recording Spectrum with such guests as jazz bassist Ron Carter and saxophonist Joe Farrell and rock guitarist Tommy Bolin; the album and its two successors made the pop Top 40. In 1974 Cobham assembled a band called Spectrum including keyboardist George Duke, guitarist John Scofield (who later joined Miles Davis), and ex-Santana bassist Doug Rauch (later replaced by Alphonso Johnson). By 1976 the group had become the Billy Cobham–George Duke Band.

In 1979 and 1980 he worked extensively as part of Jack Bruce’s band, followed by a year’s stint with Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir’s Midnites. In the mid-’70s he produced albums for Airto and pianist David Sancious. Throughout the decade Cobham’s solo albums, either in a small-group format or with more extensive lineups, continued to mine the jazz-rock vein.

Cobham settled ultimately in Zurich, Switzerland, continuing to record solo projects during the ’80s. Still an influential percussionist, Cobham found a new forum in the drum clinic. In the ’90s he toured with ex–Dixie Dregs keyboardist T. Lavitz in Jazz Is Dead, an ensemble that specialized in jazz interpretations of Grateful Dead songs. Becoming a renowned lecturer about jazz, he also premiered, in 2000, a multimedia project: a DVD, recorded with the London Jazz Orchestra, that enables musicians to play along with Cobham compositions.

from The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (Simon & Schuster, 2001)