Billy Cobham

He had a double bass drum, and his favorite drummer was Ginger Baker from The Queen.

His other favorite drummer was Billy Cobham.

And he sort of tried to mix the two styles up.

And we should have recorded more drum solos than we did.

By the New York Times review, he had real stage presence and was not a bad singer.

Merle led the ten-piece band from the organ and piano, and the drummer in that band was a young Billy Cobham.

The show ran 16 previews and five performances, and then it closed.

A week, more or less.

Okay, anyway, I hope you enjoyed that.

Billy Cobham is next.

You probably remember Billy Cobham if you've been around for a while.

And this was his big hit record.

Thank you.

So there's Billy Cobham.

It's called Stratus.

It's been a long time since I played it on the radio.

Yeah, be cool, man.

I remember Billy Cobham in one of our interviews, he said, you know, contrary to popular belief, the drummer is the leader of the band.

And, you know, I wanted you to talk about that from your philosophy, because to me, the drummer can change tempos.

They can dictate the feel.

The reason I really wanted...

I mean, I was already, like, a huge Miles fan, but I was really, like, super into jazz fusion, and, like, while I was in grad school, like, listening a lot to, like, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report and... like all the Billy Cobham stuff and I don't know.

It's funny, sometimes I play that stuff when I'm teaching and the students think it's smooth jazz, like they have no

Yeah, concepts of

You're not stepping on him." See, that, that's an art.

There's a jazz art with the, with the great upright players like a Ron Carter, and you take a Ron Carter, George Benson, and, and a Tony Williams or a Billy Cobham, put them with me, they're gonna make me sound good, you know?

[laughs]

And no one's gonna step on me.

he was playing.

I love Billy Cobham.

[laughs]

Right.

He played all Billy Cobham stuff.

Right.

He heard, he had big ears.