Billy Cobham

William Cobham, 16 May 1944, Panama. Cobham began playing drums while growing up in New York City, to where his family had moved while he was still a small child. He studied at the city’s High School of Music before entering military service. In the army he played in a band and by the time of his discharge had achieved a high level of proficiency.

In the late 60s he played in the New York Jazz Sextet and with Horace Silver. In 1969 he formed the jazz rock band, Dreams, with Michael Brecker and Randy Brecker. The growing popularity of jazz rock kept Cobham busy with recording sessions, including some with Miles Davis, and he then joined John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, one of the most influential and highly regarded jazz rock bands. Their 1973 recording Birds Of Fire’s success owed as much to Cobham’s extraordinary drumming as it did to McLaughlin’s stellar guitar.

In 1973, Cobham capitalized upon his international fame by forming his own band (initially with Tommy Bolin) and continued to lead fusion bands for the next several years. He has played all around the world, at festivals and in concert, and has an extensive solo catalogue. His early recordings include the fusion classics Spectrum (1973) and Crosswinds (1974), and after a fallow mid-period he enjoyed an upswing in fortunes with the best of his later releases including the post-millennial return to bebop on Art Of Five (2004) and Art Of Four (2006). Cobham is also an in-demand educator, teaching and presenting drum clinics.

In 1984 he and McLaughlin were reunited in a new version of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Perhaps the best and most technically accomplished of all the jazz rock drummers, Cobham’s rhythmic dexterity, all-round ability and his dedication to musical excellence has resulted in many copyists. For all his spectacular pyrotechnics, however, Cobham’s talent runs deep and his abilities as a teacher and clinician ensure that his methods are being handed on to future generations of drummers.