Billy Cobham Clinic

[palmerlouie]

Managed to get into the "secret" drum clinic at the Acadamy of Contemporary Music as one of my guitarist friends goes there.

i had seen billy twice before but still enjoy his playing and listening to him preech.

he was playing a four piece kit with only a few cymbals and began with a drum solo lasting bout 15 mins......demonstrating his usual stuff. very clean.

he talked a lot about the people he's played with and the stuff he's done.....some random facts and things that he said from the clinic:

1) he said his spectrum album cost $22,000 to make and only took a couple of weeks....compared to 8 months to make steely dan's "Aja". he said he had NO idea it would sell so well....the only reason he did it was for self satisfaction and to give a few copies to family!!

2) he is very upset about the new miles davis release from Columbia records. the release is of the entire recording sessions from ( i forget the name of the record) and includes all the mistakes. he said the record companies are just after $$$'s.

3) when asked who one of his fav drummers was he immediately said dennis chambers because hes a "chameleon". he said "dennis can play with carlos santana and then with mike stern. carlos has a wonderful tone and no chops, while mike has too man chops and awful tone....but i'd take mike anyday!"

very interesting........

[peter c]

Well, that IS interesting.

I know he likes Dennis but
who doesn't?

I thnk that he's very im-
pressed, as I am, at the
fact that Dennis doesn't
read BUT interprets music
VERY well, probably better
than anyone, under the same
circumstances. I still think
of the TOKYO LIVE stuff as
the top of the heap.

At the same time, I think
there are other chameleons
out there. Vinnie is the
most versatile player, I
think but he's a great read-
er and I think that's what
Billy is leaning on.


I know he's not happy with
the record companies. Again,
who is? $$$$$.

On the Santana/Stern - hmmm.

I love BOTH those guys!

[img]cool.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 10, 2003 04:16 PM: Message edited by: peter c ]</font>

[benrand]

Isn't the new release Jack Johnson? I sorta liked Billy's playing on that, he had some interesting things goin on.

[peter c]

That's it, I think.

[img]cool.gif[/img]

[FuseU1]

I think DC is a natural extension somewhat of BC ["DC-BC"; kinda like "AC-DC" [img]wink.gif[/img] ]...except that he's taken it to another dimension...Scofe's Live Japan, AWA Blue Matter & Loud Jazz was some SCARY-fun sh**....

[five eight]

By TOKYO LIVE, peterc, you mean the McLaughlin, DeFranceso, Chambers 'Free Spirits' gig, right? That's my favorite Dennis record, with The Heart of Things LIVE IN PARIS in second place featuring Chambers' seven minute drum solo during the tune 'Tony.' Nice tribute to Mssr. Williams.

[BennyAndTheSkins]

I though "Aja" actually took longer to make, but maybe that was "Gaucho". I remember reading stories of Becker/Fagan recording horns, then scrapping them, futzing around with different musicians/recording styles, etc... for A YEAR, and then going back and using the orignal horn tracks before release.

[peter c]

That's the one, 5/8.

Dennis made his mark
with me, on that. I
dropped to my knees.
I LOVE Joey D! He is
the top on that!

"The Heart of Things"
was great too.

[img]cool.gif[/img]

[FuseU1]

Aarrgghh...
I don't have either the Free Spirits or Heart of Things LIVE PARIS [img]frown.gif[/img] [img]confused.gif[/img] - hard to find locally...I've ordered a coupla things from AudiophileImports, but they take SOOOO LOOONNG to ship/arrive [img]frown.gif[/img]

[five eight]

Yeah, Joey DeF is righteous. For about 20 seconds during one song he starts playing eerie Hammond B3 like Larry Young and then McLaughlin and Chambers put their McLaughlin and Williams Lifetime hats on and join in the fun. No matter where I'm at or what kind of mood I'm in it totally gets me off. I'm glad I'm familiar enough with Lifetime to pick up on that. I deplore the term 'ear candy' but it's applicable in this case.