Billy Cobham, drums

David Dunsmuir, guitar

Michael Mondesir, bass

Steve Hamilton, keys

Camelia Ben Naceur, keys

Was soll man über Billy Cobham noch erklären? Er ist einer der Väter des Jazzrock und tonangebender Fusion-Leader. Miles Davis holte sich den blutjungen Cobham zu den „Bitches Brew“-Sessions ins Studio, die Musikgeschichte schrieben. Gitarrist John McLaughlins Mahavishnu Orchestra spielte mit dem Drummer die ebenfalls wegweisenden Alben „The Inner Mounting Flame“ und „Birds Of Fire“ ein. Cobham profilierte sich aber auch als Komponist und Leiter seiner eigenen Projekte wie „Spectrum“, sein vielbeachtetes Album, mit dem er seine Solokarriere startete. Mit seiner „Glass Menagerie“ oder auch der heutigen „Billy Cobham Band“ bestätigt er seinen Status im Fusion, aber auch Jazz widmet er sich regelmäßig. Mit 74 Jahren strotzt Billy Cobham immer noch vor Kreativität, seine Konzerte sind legendär. Im Quasimodo präsentieren Billy Cobham und seine Band ihr Projekt „Tierra del Fuego“.

Ever since his breakthrough in the early 1970s-as a founding member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, and as a drummer/leader whose recordings and powerful, complex style of play exerted a strong influence on the course of jazz and jazz-fusion-Billy Cobham has remained a tireless musical explorer. In 1969 Cobham co-founded the fusion group Dreams, which also featured Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, John Abercrombie, Don Grolnick, Barry Rodgers, and Will Lee. The following year he was invited to join Miles Davis’s group and contributed to four pivotal recordings by the trumpeter, including Bitches Brew (where he collaborated with guitarist John McLaughlin) and Tribute to Jack Johnson. Mahavishnu Orchestra was formed by McLaughlin in 1971 with Cobham, Jan Hammer, Jerry Goodman, and Rick Laird. They released three acclaimed albums (beginning with Inner Mounting Flame) before the band was dissolved and Cobham chose to launch his solo career with Spectrum, one of the definitive albums of the jazz-rock era. By the start of the 2000s Cobham had introduced “The Art of Jazz” series, recording and touring extensively first with the Art of 3 (Kenny Barron, Ron Carter), then the Art of 4 (Carter, Donald Harrison, James Williams) and the Art of 5 (Harrison, Guy Barker, Eric Reed or Julian Joseph, Orlando Le Fleming). Of late, Billy had working on a series of recordings that are a tribute to his parents and his roots. The project is call “Fruit From The Loom”. The first CD, of the same name, was released in 2009. The second CD – “Palindrome” was released in 2010. In 2013 was released the third recording entitled “Tales From The Skeleton Coast”. Vol. 4 will be presented at Quasimodo.