| Spectrum | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 1, 1973 | |||
| Recorded | May 14–May 16, 1973 | |||
| Studio | Electric Lady, New York City; mixed at Trident, London | |||
| Genre | Jazz fusion | |||
| Length | 37:23 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer | Billy Cobham | |||
| Billy Cobham chronology | ||||
| ||||
Spectrum is the debut solo album by jazz fusion drummer Billy Cobham.
The song "Stratus" appears in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV on the radio station "Fusion FM", as well as being the main sample in the Massive Attack hit "Safe from Harm".
The recording process took place at Electric Lady Studios. According to Leland Sklar it was done in just two or three days and almost every track that ended up on a record was "first or second take at the most". [1]
Ken Scott, engineer of Spectrum, recounted: "Bill Cobham's drums were treated in exactly the same way as I recorded every other drummer. I just used more mics: Neumann U67s on toms, D20s or RE20s (at Electric Lady) on the bass drums, Neumann KM54 or 56 on snare, and either STC 4038s or Beyer M160 ribbon mics for the overheads. One other thing: in order to dampen the snare, Bill just laid his wallet on the top head."
Leland Sklar, bassist on four of the songs, remarked, "Spectrum is such a benchmark for so many people. There was a sort of fire in it. It was new ground and it wasn't very analytical. It was more flying by the seat of your pants. That's where great accidents happen, which seems impossible these days. We never did more than a couple of takes on any of it. It was more or less a two-day record. It went by so fast." [2] Sklar and Hammer recall that the music was recorded live and was not edited or fixed in any way afterwards. [3] This recording method captured Tommy Bolin breaking his high E string while soloing on "Taurian Matador" (approximately at 1:45 into the track) and continuing playing. [4] Bolin used Fender Stratocaster and Maestro Echoplex delay unit, prominently heard on "Quadrant 4". Sklar attests that he played his 1962 Fender Jazz bass through a small Univox amp with a single 12″ speaker. [5]
Not as well known at the time, Tommy Bolin plays lead guitar on four songs. Cobham had met Bolin years before, when he was a member of Zephyr. Bolin had recently joined rock band James Gang, and recorded his first album with that band just two months prior to the Spectrum sessions. [6]
"To the Women in My Life" is unusual in that Cobham himself does not play on it, though he did produce the track. It is an unaccompanied piano piece performed by Jan Hammer.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |  [7] |
| Christgau's Record Guide | C+ [8] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide |  [9] |
| Sputnikmusic | 4/5 [10] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |  [11] |
Spectrum received positive reviews from contemporary critics. However, Robert Christgau offered a dissenting review for Creem magazine, calling Cobham "Mahavishnu's muscle-headed muscle man" and saying, "Despite a few tough minutes this is basically slick, gimmicky, one-dimensional—in a word, undemanding. All of which may make him a star." [12] Scott Yanow was more impressed by the record, writing years later in his review for AllMusic that Spectrum remains Cobham's best and an exceptional jazz fusion album with "rock-ish rhythms and jazz improvising". [7]
All songs written and composed by Billy Cobham.
Though tracks 2, 3, 5, and 6 are designated as medleys, all of the component songs have clean breaks between them. Most recent CD issues list 10 tracks. [13]
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1974 | Billboard 200 | 26 [14] |
| 1973 | Billboard Jazz Albums | 1 [14] |
Thomas Richard Bolin was an American guitarist and songwriter who played with Zephyr, The James Gang, and Deep Purple, in addition to maintaining a career as a solo artist and session musician.
John McLaughlin, also known as Mahavishnu, is an English guitarist, bandleader, and composer. A pioneer of jazz fusion, his music combines elements of jazz with rock, world music, Western classical music, flamenco, and blues. After contributing to several key British groups of the early 1960s, McLaughlin made Extrapolation, his first album as a bandleader, in 1969. He then moved to the U.S., where he played with drummer Tony Williams's group Lifetime and then with Miles Davis on his electric jazz fusion albums In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, Live-Evil, and On the Corner. His 1970s electric band, the Mahavishnu Orchestra, performed a technically virtuosic and complex style of music that fused electric jazz and rock with Indian influences.
The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across its two periods of activity, from 1971 to 1976 and from 1984 to 1987. With its first line-up consisting of musicians Billy Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, and Rick Laird, the band received its initial acclaim for its complex, intense music consisting of a blend of Indian classical music, jazz, and psychedelic rock as well as its dynamic live performances between 1971 and 1973. Many members of the band have gone on to acclaimed careers of their own in the jazz and jazz fusion genres.
Jan Hammer is a Czech-American musician, composer, and record producer. He rose to prominence while playing keyboards with the Mahavishnu Orchestra during the early 1970s, as well as with his film scores for television and film including "Miami Vice Theme" and "Crockett's Theme", from the 1980s television program Miami Vice. He has continued to work as both a musical performer and producer.
Birds of Fire is the second studio album by jazz fusion band the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It was released in 1973 by Columbia Records and is the last studio album released by the original line-up before it dissolved.
The Inner Mounting Flame is the debut studio album by American jazz-rock fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra, recorded in August 1971 and released later that year by Columbia Records. After their formation, the group performed several debut gigs before they entered the studio to record their first album featuring all original material written by guitarist John McLaughlin.
William Emanuel Cobham Jr. is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Jerry Goodman is an American violinist known for playing electric violin with The Flock and the jazz fusion ensemble Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy is a studio album by American jazz fusion band Return to Forever. It was released in October 1973 by Polydor. It was the first album not to feature Flora Purim, Airto and Joe Farrell, and marked a shift away from the largely acoustic fusion they created. Drummer Lenny White and guitarist Bill Connors make their first appearances with the group. Connors would leave shortly after the albums release.
The Lost Trident Sessions is a studio album by jazz fusion group the Mahavishnu Orchestra, released on 21 September 1999 through Sony Music Entertainment. It was originally recorded in June 1973 at Trident Studios but was not released until 26 years later. According to the album's detailed liner notes, in November 1998 Columbia Records producer Bob Belden stumbled upon two quarter-inch tapes in Columbia's Los Angeles vault whilst gathering material for a remastered reissue of the Mahavishnu Orchestra's 1973 album Birds of Fire. The tapes were otherwise unlabelled besides the recording location, but upon further inspection, they were revealed to be the two-track mixes for what would have been the Mahavishnu Orchestra's third studio album at the time.
Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist, keyboard player and bandleader. He is also a composer, arranger and producer.
Between Nothingness & Eternity is the first live album by jazz fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra, released on November 1973 by Columbia Records. According to the Mahavishnu Orchestra Gigs listing by Walter Kolosky, it was recorded live at the Schaefer Music Festival, held in Central Park, New York, on August 17 and 18, 1973, even though available recordings indicate that all of the material from the album was taken from the second night only. Originally, Mahavishnu Orchestra's third album was to be a studio effort, recorded in June 1973 at Trident in London, but was scrapped during the final days of the project; the live album, containing versions of three of the original six tracks, was released instead as the last album during the period of the original line-up of the band. The original studio album was released in 1999 as The Lost Trident Sessions.
The discography of jazz/jazz fusion drummer Billy Cobham includes solo, collaborative, and work playing on other artists' albums.
Devotion is the second album by the English jazz fusion guitarist John McLaughlin, released in 1970. It was recorded while McLaughlin was a member of Tony Williams Lifetime. McLaughlin was joined by his Lifetime bandmate, organist Larry Young, bass guitarist Billy Rich and former Electric Flag and Jimi Hendrix drummer Buddy Miles. McLaughlin was unhappy with the finished album. On his website, he wrote, “In 1969, I signed a contract in America for two records. First is 'Devotion' that is destroyed by producer Alan Douglas who mixes the recording in my absence.”
The Joy of Flying is a jazz fusion album by Tony Williams. It was recorded at the end of the Tony Williams Lifetime years, and is considered his first solo album since 1966. It included three duets, two with Mahavishnu Orchestra keyboardist Jan Hammer, and one with free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor, and three different quartets: the first featured Hammer along with guitarist George Benson and bassist Paul Jackson, the second featured pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Stanley Clarke and Tom Scott on Lyricon, and the third featured guitarist Ronnie Montrose, keyboardist Brian Auger, and bass guitarist Mario Cipollina. "Hip Skip" also featured a five piece horn section.
Crosswinds is the second album of fusion drummer Billy Cobham. The album was released in 1974 and it contains four songs in total, all composed by Billy Cobham. It features songs that are more mid-tempo and slow-tempo as opposed to the earlier Spectrum album.
Soul Box is the third studio album by American saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. The project was originally divided in two LPs, both released in 1973 on Kudu Records with quite identical covers as Soul Box Vol. 1 (KU-12) and Soul Box Vol. 2 (KU-13), then issued as a 2-LP set as KUX-1213. Both albums were recorded during March 1973 with the same personnel. With the rising of CD's Soul Box Vol. 1 & Soul Box Vol. 2 were reissued on CD by Motown in the early 1990s. Unfortunately Vol. 2 was mastered incorrectly with a totally wrong track separation. Original tracks #1 + #2 were combined into 1 single track of 17 minutes, track #3 was cut as track #2 and track #4 was cut as track #3. Subsequently a totally wrong printing on the CD and the back cover of the CD was performed: The CD contained & listed only 3 tracks. The printed titles were not matching the corresponding tracks and were stated with wrong durations, not matching the original songs of the LP. It took until 2008, when the two volumes were released on one CD by Verve/GRP Records to get the tracks right again with their track separations and title durations back to the original recordings from the Kudu LP's.
Spaces is an album by jazz guitarist Larry Coryell that was released in 1970 by Vanguard Records. Coryell is accompanied by John McLaughlin on guitar, Chick Corea on electric piano, Miroslav Vitouš on bass, and Billy Cobham on drums. The album was produced by Daniel Weiss and engineered by David Baker and Paul Berkowitz.
The discography of Czech-American musician Jan Hammer consists of 25 albums with Hammer as the lead artist, as well as several singles and a large number of collaborations with jazz and rock musicians, such as John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Al Di Meola, Mick Jagger, Carlos Santana, Stanley Clarke, Tommy Bolin, Neal Schon, Steve Lukather, and Elvin Jones among many others. He has composed and produced at least 14 original motion picture soundtracks, the music for 90 episodes of Miami Vice and 20 episodes of the popular British television series Chancer.
Shabazz is a live album by drummer Billy Cobham. It was recorded in Switzerland and England during July 1974, and was released on LP in 1975 by Atlantic Records. On the album, Cobham is joined by saxophonist Michael Brecker, trumpeter Randy Brecker, trombonist Glenn Ferris, guitarist John Abercrombie, keyboardist Milcho Leviev, and bassist Alex Blake.
Oh no, the best stuff, all that you hear was all playing live in the studio.
