Billy Cobham – Spectrum

The drummer wrote the whole programme

Billy Cobham’s first album as a leader is about more than making room for drum solos. He composed every piece on Spectrum and produced the recording himself. The sessions occupied three days at New York’s Electric Lady Studios in May 1973. Cobham was still a member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, so this project developed during that period rather than after it.

Jan Hammer connects the two settings. He contributes acoustic piano, electric piano and Moog synthesizer here. With Tommy Bolin on guitar and Leland Sklar on electric bass, the group heard on “Quadrant 4”, “Stratus” and “Red Baron” takes shape. Follow the division of responsibilities: a repeating bass figure can give guitar and keyboards a frame within which to move, while the drums influence how that repetition develops.

The line-up changes with the music

That quartet does not play the entire album. The title track and “Le Lis” involve musicians including Joe Farrell, Jimmy Owens, Ron Carter and Ray Barretto, with John Tropea adding guitar to “Le Lis”. Carter brings double bass into the programme. The instrumental resources change while Cobham’s writing supplies continuity.

“To the Women in My Life” offers an even smaller setting: a brief unaccompanied piano performance by Hammer, with no playing from the leader. A drummer’s debut album pauses to let somebody else speak alone. That detail helps explain why the record’s shape cannot be reduced to its most energetic passages. Follow the transitions as well as the individual pieces, and the different scale of each ensemble becomes part of the listening experience.

When a string breaks during the take

Bolin’s high E string broke during his solo on “Taurian Matador”. He continued playing, and the incident remains in the recording. It gives you a precise musical event to follow: how does a player continue an idea when his instrument suddenly offers fewer options? The interest is in the solo’s development rather than in a claim about one pressing outperforming another.

Ken Scott handled the recording and mixing. The music was captured in New York and mixed at Trident Studios in London. Scott had recently worked with David Bowie and was also involved in Birds of Fire. Those connections place Spectrum within overlapping working worlds. Rock guitar, synthesizer, horns and two kinds of bass are practical ingredients used by musicians and engineers moving between projects.

Spectrum across four sides

This Analogue Productions Atlantic 75 edition comprises two 180-gram LPs playing at 45 RPM. Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio is credited with mastering from the original master tape. The publisher specifies Quality Record Pressings and a Stoughton tip-on gatefold jacket. Catalogue number AAPA 072-45 identifies the double LP. The short introductory pieces belong to the original album programme, rather than being bonus recordings added for the reissue.

Michael 45 stores the goods in Germany and dispatches from Hilden, so German and EU buyers can avoid arranging a personal US import or waiting for customs clearance.

Also on SACD: Spectrum

Customer questions: Atlantic 75: which titles are worth buying? · Buying Analogue Productions records in Europe

Series: Atlantic 75 Series – all 75 albums, time journey and the people behind Atlantic

Musicians

Documented selection of participating musicians. Personnel may vary by track; this list does not claim to be complete.

Tommy Bolin and Leland Sklar belong to the electric core group. Joe Farrell, Jimmy Owens, Ron Carter and Ray Barretto appear with the other lineup; John Tropea plays on “Le Lis”.