Billy Cobham's Time Machine Live At The Blue Note

Billy Cobham
The Blue Note
New York, NY
March 23, 2025

Hello, my name is Chris DeRosa and this is what I heard...

What can be said about Billy Cobham to describe the powerhouse he is and the musical force he has been over the last six decades? Days before his 81st birthday and just after hip surgery, we celebrate the achievements and joy Billy Cobham has brought to both the drumming and music communities at large. Here tonight, the crowd assembled to hear the 80-year-old master play many songs by Dreams, a supergroup he played with early in his career. The best part was that two original members, Will Lee on bass and Randy Brecker on trumpet, were here tonight along with Oz Ezzeldin on keyboards, Marshall Gilkes on trombone, and Brandon Wilkins on saxophone for this special weeklong celebration of Billy Cobham's Time Machine at The Blue Note in New York City.

Panamanian-born William Emanuel Cobham Jr. moved to Brooklyn, NY where he began his musical journey (tonight's show was just blocks from where he grew up). By the age of three, Billy had two passions: drumming and baseball. His dad played piano on the weekends, and by the age of eight, he was accompanying his dad on gigs. Cobham tells a wonderful story about the first time he met Buddy Rich. His parents took him to the famous Manny's Music one evening to get his first drum set. It was closing time, and before they left, the owner (Manny himself) took young Cobham aside and said, "Would you like to meet Buddy Rich?" The young Cobham was so excited that when he went to hand Mr. Rich his drum to autograph, Billy dropped his brand new Ludwig Chrome snare drum, and it rolled down the stairs and got a dent in it. Cobham said he still has that drum today, and it still sounds great!

By the time Cobham was 14, he was skilled enough to pass the entrance exam for New York's High School of Music and Art; there he studied alongside a stellar cast of musicians such as Jimmy Owens, Eddie Gomez, Lew Soloff, Bobby Colomby, Al Foster, and Richard Tee. Through school, he was able to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival each year via the Marshall Brown Newport Youth Band. These experiences ignited the passion for a music career that brought us here today.

The show started with the tune "Panhandler," a track from his album, A Funky Thide Of Sings (Atlantic, 1975), and continued with "A Little Travelin' Music," followed by "Moon Germs" off of Total Eclipse (Atlantic, 1974). Lee & Cobham laid down a very thick groove throughout, but Gilkes's trombone solo on "Moon Germs" really stood out. Next up was the 9/8 composition "Bombay Chill," first performed with the London Jazz Orchestra.

Will Lee is quoted as saying Billy was the first drummer he'd ever played with whose confidence & power were so strong that he could just sit back and play while Billy steered. Keeping in step with the original Dreams sound, Brecker used what sounded like a synthesizer effect on all of his solos, which was reminiscent of that era. Up next was "To The Woman In My Life/Le Lis," a classic from the album Spectrum (Atlantic, 1973) that was the perfect vehicle for Ezzeldin to display his chops. The band went on to perform "Times Of My Life," and, up until now, Cobham was relaxed and groove-focused. Here, at this moment, that all changed. The band broke into the classic "Stratus" with Cobham's first extended solo. Billy showed that age was not a limit to what we all knew he was capable of. Not only did he still have the power and speed of his youth, but he displayed a maturity and compositional style of solo, using melody and dynamics to lift and propel his spotlight to its max.

At a solid 65 minutes, the set closed with "Tinseltown" to a standing ovation. So much so that the band was persuaded to do an encore of the classic tune "Red Baron." In closing, I'd like to share a quote by the Percussive Arts Society: "Billy Cobham is one of the very few who can be called a pivotal drummer in music history. He changed the way we set up our drums and cymbals, he changed the way we play them, and he changed the way we play music."

Billy Cobham's Time Machine Band:
Billy Cobham: Drums
Will Lee: Bass
Randy Brecker: Trumpet
Oz Ezzeldin: Keyboards
Marshall Gilkes: Trombone
Brandon Wilkins: Saxophone

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