BILLY COBHAM — Life & Times (review)

BILLY COBHAM — Life & Times album cover Album · 1976 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
js
This album came out in 1976 when a lot of other fusion musicians had sold out and started producing "fuzak", but not Cobham. This album is just as innovative and energetic as anything that came out in the early 70s. For Cobham, this is a small band, but an extremely talented one. Doug Rauch and George Duke in particular are often overlooked and underrated players. Duke can hold his own with any of the 70s jazz greats, such as Corea or Hancock, but is also more adept at laying down the hard funk. Duke is also more skilled at manipulating the sounds of the analog synthesizer in real time, his solos display a lot of knowledge and intuition on this difficult instrument. This album also shows off what a sophisticated writer and arranger Cobham was becoming. Side one opens with some typical Cobham style high energy jazz rock. The song "Life and Times" features a complicated fusionesque melody similar to Zappa or Corea and "29" is driven by a rapid montuno like figure from Duke. On "Siesta" things change up a bit. This song is a sophisticated jazz ballad with unusual twists and turns and features a small chamber quintet. The mini-orchestral arrangements on this tune are somewhat similar to Gil Evans or 60s Hancock. Finally the side closes with a tribute to Oakland CA called "East Bay". This song is hard and funky like the tough blue collar city it is dedicated to. George Duke plays a great Fender Rhodes solo on this one.

Side two opens with more high energy fusion, this time with a melody similar to Cobham's days with Mahavishnu. After this comes another change of pace with a really nice ballad called "Song for a Friend". This song is a beautiful piece of spacey lounge jazz that features excellent relaxed solos from Duke and Schofield. It has an almost ambient texture that foreshadows the coming trip-hop fad, this cut would make a great find for an aspiring acid jazz/chill room DJ. Cobham brings back the funk on "On a Natural High" and closes out the album peacefully with a reprise of "For a Friend", this time with a longer solo from Schofield.

If you like 70s jazz fusion, it doesn't get much better than this.
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