Generally acclaimed as fusion’s greatest drummer, Billy Cobham’s explosive technique powered some of the genre’s most important early recordings — including groundbreaking efforts by Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra — before he became an accomplished bandleader in his own right.
William C. Cobham was born May 16, 1944, in Panama, where as a very young child he became fascinated with percussion. The Cobham family moved to New York City, and at age of eight he made his performance debut with his father. He honed his percussion skills in a drum-and-bugle corps outfit called the St. Catherine’s Queensmen, and attended New York’s prestigious High School of Music and Art, graduating in 1962.
In 69 he became part of Miles Davis’ new fusion ensemble, and played a small part in the seminal Bitches Brew sessions; he also appeared more prominently on several other Davis albums of the time, including more aggressive classics like Live-Evil and A Tribute to Jack Johnson.
Cobham and John McLaughlin left the Davis’ group and formed the Mahavishnu Orchestra, which debuted in 1971 with the seminal The Inner Mounting Flame. With Mahavishnu, In May 1973 while still with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham recorded his first solo album Spectrum. Cobham went on to work with a broad range of artists leaving a wake that would inspire jazz and rock percussionists across the world.
