RQST

Posted by David on

I mentioned I would send some jazz fusion, so here it is!

The song is “Quadrant 4” from the album “Spectrum” by drummer Billy Cobham.  The opening solo is keyboardist Jan Hammer on MiniMoog synth.  He is followed by guitarist Tommy Bolin, who was a very hot young player (also played with James Gang) but died very young.  The bass player is Leland Sklar, who has played with almost everybody and their grandmother (check his Wiki if you doubt me!)
Cobham is best known as the drummer for Mahavishnu Orchestra.
The is a smokin’ tune even you headbangers might like!!! lol!  The coolest thing about it is that my high school band director turned us on to this, after he took us to see Mahavishnu.
🙂
-Andy 


5 responses to “RQST”

  1. Cobham is definitely an amazing drummer. And this is better than I thought it would be. But I'm still not a big fusion fan. I was just never really into jazz.

    And you left out that Billy was the drummer for that 'Bobby and the Midnights' song you made me (us?) suffer through.

    Interesting track!

    143

    _Kevin

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  2. Hello David
    Good stuff – I'm not sure I could listen to a whole album, but this track was certainly enjoyable. Jazz drummers are often very talented, which is always a plus point for me, and, as Kevin says, Billy Cobham is a good example of that.

    Love & best wishes
    Sammy B

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  3. Thanks for the post, DJ…and I'm glad you guys liked it!

    (If you want to play along, it's a I-IV in G, with a ii-V-I turnaround. The middle section is a C-Bb vamp.)

    And here is a Lee Sklar interview:

    http://www.musicradar.com/news/bass/interview-bass-legend-leland-sklar-on-sessions-gear-and-getting-hired-543514

    Dude has played on over *2000* albums!!! :-O

    I did some more reading about Tommy Bolin, a really tragic story:

    http://dirtcitychronicles.blogspot.com/2012/08/well-my-mind-has-been-overflowin-bout.html

    And a Billy Cobham interview. He talks about how Massive Attack sampled his “Stratus” song for their song “Safe From Harm.” Cobham's brother was in the studio and caught them in the act:

    http://www.npr.org/2013/03/28/171896264/billy-cobham-on-world-cafe

    But he never explained the “Bobby and the Midnights” thing.

    🙂

    -Andy

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  4. I really love jazz fusion. This is good stuff. I've even heard more of this style, with some of these musicians. Used to sit at a friend's house stoned immaculate with this cool stuff playing all day long.

    Thanks, Andy, good choice, and thanks, David, for braving a new world and posting it!

    Peace <3
    Jay

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