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Billy Cobham - Spectrum CD (album) cover

SPECTRUM

Billy Cobham

 

Jazz Rock/Fusion

4.27 | 666 ratings

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Magnum Vaeltaja
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Billy Cobham's debut is a jazz fusion classic.

Being written entirely by a drummer, this album is obviously quite drum-centric. And there's no problem with that because even though drums are the highlight of the album, there's still plenty of time to appreciate the other players, such as Tommy Bolin (soon to join Deep Purple) on guitar and Jan Hammer on keys. "Spectrum" is very evocative of urban, nocturnal moods and ranges from exhilarating up-tempo jams ("Quadrant 4") to subdued, more "pornographic" soundscapes, such as "Le Lis" and it's not hard to get lost in the grooves and get swept away by the music, which is exactly what great jazz should do. The production on the album is strong throughout and there are no weak performances. The only reason that I'm tempted to give this a 4 star review as opposed to declaring it a fusion masterpiece is due to the fact that the album was recorded very spontaneously in only 2 days and as a result a lot of the compositions don't seem fleshed out. The shorter tracks, especially the drum solos, tend not to move the listener nearly as much as the longer pieces, such as "Stratus" and "Red Baron".

While not being "perfect", "Spectrum is still a jazz fusion album that anyone can get into and that I would highly, highly recommend for drummers to listen to. 4 stars.

Magnum Vaeltaja | 4/5 |

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