Customer Reviews

Traveller

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This album was a suprise to me when i first purchased it. Billy has used different approaches to the overall sound of the c.d in this one. Singing can be heard on a couple of tracks which is odd for a solo album of his, however it is good and he plays expertly at both carrying the songs and adding his unique blend of exciting fills.

mostly slower tracks, no 200bpm beats here!

Apart from the continual change in style throught the c.d billys drums remain superb, and are recorded well.

This comes from Billy Cobham's lite jazz phase. It is more contemporary and accesible. It is along the lines of the breakfast club jazz or cool jazz that was popular in the eighties. There are some very nice tracks on this CD and few bad ones. The sound quality is very good and it is 67 minutes long.

First, the great tracks: Mushi Creole Blues is an 8 minute, organ dominated funky instrumental. It is very energetic and entertaining. Balancing Act is one of those Cobham signature percussion tracks (not a drum solo) that has an interesting sound.

The good tracks include the 9 minute Dippin' The Bisquites in The Soup. It has a very nice piano theme throughout. It just has some ponderous bits in the middle.

The three vocal tracks, All That Your Soul Provides, What If? and Just One Step Away are fairly bland evening gown, piano bar jazz tunes. Cobham has had some stunning vocal tracks on earlier albums.

The worst track on the ablum, Soul Provider, sounds like an instrumental version of the horrible pop song: Sometimes When We Touch, The Honesty's Too Much.....

The backup band is mediocre. The keyboard player is fairly good and adds some interest to the CD. The guitar player is nothing spectacular, and the solos are fairly bland and simplistic.

Some people call Cobham jazz fusion's greatest drummer. They might be correct (but I no of others that can complete, like Lenny White). He came up with Miles Davis and John McLaughlin. His early solo work was very innovative, and he continued to experiment into the eighties. Although his albums were very experimental, his live shows tended to be more tradional. I was able to see him a number of times in the late seventies. One time, he played in a bar that was converted from a church. They couldn't fit all the bands instruments on the stage and had to play without the synthesizer. As a goof, the band wore huge sunglasses that you would buy in an amusement park. He then did 3 albums for GRP records, and tried to copy the GRP sound. He wasn't very successful, but the third album, Picture This, has some very good moments. I haven't heard any of his latest work, so I don't know what he has been up to.