Customer Reviews

Billy Cobham - Culturemix: New Morning Paris Concert

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the 3rd Cobham concert DVD that I have bought. Each one is better than the last. I love it. The audio and video are great. The presentation looks very cool. Billy is playing with a MUCH smaller kit here. But, in case you didn't know it, this guy knows how to play the drums. The music sounds fresh and the playing is flawless. The keyboardist looks like he's 15, but does a great job. They are all very good. Billy, of course, is phenomenal! Fast, furious, and dazzling as usual. You won't be disappointed with this LONG concert disk.

Right from the top let me say that I agree completely with the other reviews here - this is a very good concert, good quality dvd and I am glad to have it in my collection. Now saying that let me mention 2 points that to me distract a bit from the show and that I would have liked to have known about before I purchased mine. First there is a extra percussion player in the band who plays steel pan(as listed on the dvd) or steel drum as I think of it...to my ears the steel drum sound is very out of place here and does not always mesh well with the other instruments...on first listen to the dvd this really stood out to me as a bad idea... on other listens since then it does not seem as bad.. still I could have done without it... there is probably steel drum playing on a little less than 1/2 of the songs...The other odd thing here is that the bass,keyboard and guitar players all have music stands in front of them and most of the time are very intently reading the music as they play.. they do come to points in the music score where they must be told "time to improvise" and they all stretch out a bit... this playing from sheet music gives the show a somewhat less than spontaneous feel...as the concert goes along the interplay of the band gets more relaxed however it is odd to see Jazz played from sheet music like this...It helps me to just play the dvd and listen to the music and not watch the screen..the music then speaks for it's self and sounds real nice...I would not let these 2 things stop you from buying this dvd - just want to make folks aware of them...

If you are a cobham fan and drummer then you should love this DVD. I have many of Billys' LP's and CD's but this is the first DVD and watching him is even better than listening. One of the reasons I think that Billy sounds so good and blends so well with the music is his feel and emotion he puts into it. Just watch the expressions on his face. Some drummers are great technicians but lack emotion, Cobham posesses both.We can also see why Billy's nickname is "Boomer". He has the unique tallent of getting incredible sound out of his kit the way he strikes the drums, and those cymbal crashes, he stings them! All the musicians are excellent and I especially like Peter Gade. He combines great sound with passion in his playing that reminds you of how fusion guitar is suposed to sound, not like that played out Metheney sound. Some great new interpretations of Stratus, Crosswinds and Red Barron. Camera work and sound quality seem excellent to me. This DVD is very enjoyable, you will probably like me watch it several times.

I really like this DVD. The sound quality and the visual quality are both very good. Billy's band is very talented. They play some Cobham standards and also some new material. This DVD is better than the Cannes DVD, mostly because of the better sound quality.

I think there's a little bit of hyperbole in some of the reviews for this and the other Billy Cobham DVDs. Oh I was a fan - as a young drummer in the 70s, my older brother first introduced me to jazz/rock fusion with Spectrum. I saw Billy perform at a jazz festival and give a drum clinic at the local music college in that era. He blew my mind. The power, the polyrhythms, the mastery. Yes, he probably was the drum king of fusion... then. But I lost interest in Billy's pop/fusion years with GRP and never got back to him. If you want to see the drum greats of modern fusion, check out Dennis Chambers on the Mike Stern DVD from the same New Morning/Paris Concert series as this one of Billy's. Also Chad Wackerman in the masterful DVD from Allan Holdsworth & Alan Pasqua

I long for those great fusion years of the 70s. I've bought several DVDs of my old heroes - and they're almost universally disappointing. I guess you can't go back - and the musicians, of course, must go forward. So this review is really just a heads up for any like me that are hoping to recapture some old favourite moments on DVD - you might not be able to.

This is actually a nice jazz fusion set. Billy has assembled a talented group of musicians to play with him. He's still a great drummer - just not what I was hoping for.

The first time I saw him play was mid 70's at the Shaboo Inn/Ct. Not sure if it is still there. Drank my first ST. Pauli Girl, which you don't forget, or so they say. I didn't.. Sitting 2 feet from the band was a blast.

He is still great, more jazzy now than the early fusion style, but he can do it all. Also really liked the guitarist & bass player. Not a big fan of the steel drum in this style of music, but it worked.

The Paris crowd is certainly a stiff bunch. Check out the few in the audience shots. I think the sheet music was due to a new band not totally familiar with all the music. Maybe they did not have enough rehearsal time. The sound quality was great with Stereo or Surround mix.

Also remember seeing him for my bachelor party in NYC, mid 80's instead of the usually stripper nonsense. And caught him @ Yoshi's outside of SF. Can't wait to see him again.