best drum tone and feel in the business

Seen him in 1979 i was 15 years old,still listen to him now it was at the rainbow theatre open handed playing seemed strange large gong behind him great experience seems like yesterday.To me the best and will always be the best,and I have listened to them all.

Got free tickets to see Billy at Ronnie Scotts a couple of years ago. Over 70 now but...oh my goodness ...SO sharp still!!...Absolutely jaw dropping. My son who was only 15 at the time and a piano player was with me on the night (managed to sneak him in) We still talk about it today!

I had the great pleasure of watching Milcho play acoustic piano with a Mike Lendt on upright and another Mike on drums for two nights at an intimate jazz club here in Edmonton about 20 years ago (called himself Mike Leviev to fit in) and the even greater pleasure of sitting and drinking with him between sets. We became pretty good friends. Massively underrated player. Funny story: When I told him how much I loved this album, he didn't know what I was talking about. I said, "You know, freaking Shabbazz, crazy Brecker sounding like a flock of angry geese, total insanity on stage...". "Oh, yeah. That's right. We used to joke that we were like a Dixieland band. Everyone was soloing at once!" Which, I realized, was actually a pretty good description. Great guy. #electricdixieland

Greatest drummer

Any serious musician will appreciate genius when they see it. Billy was an inspiration to so many guys, not only drummers. His work today is still magic, he's a nice guy who has time for other players who in a million years will never play to his standard. A great ambassador to the drumming world. Thanks for posting this, the last solo must rank as one of the greatest pieces of work recorded live!

My first concert was when Billy was with John and company during Birds of Fire. It set my jazz soul a blaze.....I was 14.

Best way I can describe this is thick soup, tasty and with and an amazing texture

Billy's Tom Rolls were a beast. Lifting weights gives the edge on the forearm. The snap and slap dynamically gave Bill his signature sound along with leading off on the snare with a paradiddle

This is flat thunderous, intense!!! Smokin!!!!!

I was there, 3 rows from the front just left of Billy almost in line with the brass section. Got my ticket on the night as a return. Couldn't believe what amazing musicians I was witnessing that night. Was happy for days after!

I had this album and listened to it daily for years....love this stuff...keyboardist is sick. Billy, Billy, Billy...The Greatest

I'm going to see Randy Brecker tomorrow night(10/15/15) at Ryles in Cambridge MA. He is playing with Greg Hopkins (Buddy Rich). This was an epic album, that I have been listening to for 40 years.

Anyone else here first hear Billy (and Mahavishnu) on the Mar y Sol Festival album from 1972? The band had just one song on the album -- a heavily edited version of 'Noonward Race'. The unedited version came out several decades later on the Best of Mahavishnu Orchestra CD. I was 14 when it came out and I bought it because it had other acts from the festival on it that I liked such as The Allman Brothers, J. Geils Band, B.B. King, Emerson Lake & Palmer and Cactus. I had never heard the Mahavishnu Orchestra, so when I heard 'Noonward Race' exploding out of my speakers it became a musical epiphany for me as a young drummer. That record, that band, and particularly Billy Cobham's playing on it, made me begin to explore jazz for the first time, and it's been a love affair ever since.

The Shabazz Concert Live! Billy Cobham is at the top of the fusion world in 1974-Crosswinds & Total Eclipse Lp`s released that year. Incredible performance! Check out Randy Brecker playing trumpet through a Wah-wah Pedal. Many Thanks from another Fusion Freak!

Billy's still the best after all these years. Thanks for inspiring me as a tean way back then!!!

I love the look Billy gets when he's in the zone. I've seen Dennis Chambers get the same look, and I know the feeling =3

Oh, Milcho Leview is really really good!

Its so great to see these amazing bands that were obviously influenced by what Miles was doing. This kind of music should really have its own genre since theres nothing else like it. Call it Anything as Miles would say

Ah, back in the days when there were no limits on how exciting and adventurous the music could be....

All these guys Cobham rich gadd Electra etc ect... Tony Anthony Williams is for many of us drummers by far easily the most imaginative the most difficult to imitate or demonstrate I could go on but you get the message but God bless them all.☺🤗😑

I saw Billy the same year, 1974 at the Sunshine Inn, in Asbury Park NJ. Just mind blowing.

My favorite drummer of all time! My Idol.....thank you Tom for posting this clip .

What a deadly kit...love the whole kit.

Thanks a lot for sharing it. I saw the Band 1974 in Paris.

I could watch/listen to Billy play All Day and All Night! The Best!

Billy Cobham, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones etc. They are giants of their instruments ... Thank you to exist ...

Amazing energetic Drummer along with unbelievable Jazzrock jam

Simon Phillips says he attended this show, and that's when he wanted to learn to play open-handed.

Had this album(Shabazz) as a kid in the 70s and listened to it constantly growing up.So here we are 37 years later and I happened to click on this and watch video,which I had no idea existed, from the SAME EXACT performance from which the album was recorded .Cool to see all the edits made.Thanks for posting this! Awesome!

Brilliant to see the video footage. Must have been 14 when i heard this and in disbelieve one man only played the drums ;-) He took drumming to the next level!

EXCELLENT!! This is the video of the album I've had SINCE '74 Thank you!!!!

Billy is so damn fast but at the same time tasteful.

Every drummer should own Shabazz - BC's versatility and ability to swing odd time signatures is amazing!

WOW!! I bought this album when it came out, played it to DEATH...........What a thrill to see this performance!!!! Thanks for posting!!!! Billy is still great, but I'm fond of the stuff from the early 70s!!

Une sacrée époque ! j'avais vu ce groupe à l'Olympia à Paris....Billy mon idole !

BTW - the improvisation within the structure and form of this piece (Shabazz) is amazing! Billy played my drums once and I got to hold a brief albeit enriching conversation with The Man......BC is a great drummer and true gentleman. What class!!!

..it's been almost 40 years since I first heard this. I NEVER thought I'd see the day that someone came along and released/posted the actual video. I'm sitting here stunned O.o Thank you for this :)

Billy started and created a style that can never be matched a true maverick. I saw him with the George duke project in 1976 sat right behind him and was at awe. Thanks you billy for sharing your God gifted talent. You da Man!

Holy geez, man. I wore this album out in the 70's 10:05 to 11:20 just friggin' kills it. Milcho was right there with BC. Awesome.

Best drummer

ralph hale your right this is a very cool recording many people don't get it glad you did and do horns mean something obviously William thought so too .I had the album parts of spectrum are missing ..........all in all it's a gem....

Billy reminds me of Boddy Rich power drumming - Billy was the drummer king in the 70 JazzFunk period

Wow thank you, many thanks for posting,,,, ;)

love this wow bc.... i keep this cd in my car all the time its great to see this!!!!!!

Now, THIS is what fusion looks like...:)...Nobody did it better...Return to Forever were just as great...

excellent!!

This is the video of the live album "Shabazz" which also has only 2 songs, one per side (I still have it) I also overplayed the shit out of it. Randy Brecker's crazy wah-wah trumpet, I thought it was the coolest thing I've ever heard and now actually seing the concert I agree with myself :) Milcho Leviev was also a total monster .... congratulations to those who saw the man live. I saw the "Magic" tour at a little club, "the golden bear" in Long Beach, CA, practically walking distance from where I lived at the time and close enough to touch him, and saw him with The Mahavishnu Orchestra, same town at the Long Beach Arena, next to the edge of the stage for the whole thing ! ... By the way, the horns with wah-wah trip was started by Frank Zappa: Ian Underwood on sax in the original version of "Chunga's Revenge" and a Latino brother trumpetist named Sal Marquez in "The Grand Wazoo" :)

The king !

Oh my God, what a master monster. Speechless.

amazing

Tom, I love that fro man! Take me back to the seventies!

What a legend

Put this in the jazz--rock time capsule........great audio + video!!

perfect music from the golden age............. thanks for posting

Absolutely incredible, i wish i can get married with this vid

Thanks for the video D... great material! Bob

Never realized how much of an influence he was on Simon P. until seeing this.. Amazing drumming...

thunder, powerful, fast, groove master...I know there are/were many virtuosos genius; (Rich, vinnie, weckl, tony, bruford, etc, etc ) etc but for me Billy is my all time fav...

I was talking with a jazz man one day who had played with a lot of big names, and he talked about each one at length, I happened to ask about Billy Cobham and the guy looked and me and simply said "Billy Cobham was a scary individual" he never elaborated beyond that but for some reason I got the feeling what he was saying was entirely accurate...

Game over with the first part of the tune. The hihat/cowbell pattern...

Respect

MAZING

back when Fusion was incredible.

Dang! Ol' BC's got more talent in the dust in his trousers turn-ups than the rest of the other tub-thumpers put together, and make no mistake!

Love this! Thanks for sharing

this was right after his stint w/ Mahavishnu, where he really stood out....

I can't believe the Rainbow has people rolling around speaking in tongues in it now.

Shabazz days

Awesome band...Hippie Crumbs w/ a 'Fro and a Gibson SG, Alex Blake n Glen Farris,great, Randy (in full '70s Brooklyn pimp regalia) & Mike just before the inception of The Brecker Brothers, Milcho Leviev, Bulgarian keys virtuoso and Billy C, forefather of Prog Metal drumming..priceless

@ 27:16 tuning whilst construction the solo!! Whah!

It's Hard to Believe how much Simon Phillips Copied Billy. even the way Billy moves. Amazing.

DID I DREAM he had a lit up drum kit on whistle test, the reason I went out and bought an album at the time..strartus still does it for me..but did he EVER have his drums individually lit too....

I saw this same band that year - but with conga player Lee Pastora - play in Cambridge, Mass. in some kind of a church building.

Billy is not only a great play but a serious writer of music as well. The core of this group is from Dreams; the group these guys started from Berklee College in Boston of course.

awesome fury...

Billy still plays with the same unique flavour …..

This was in Billy's CTI sessions phase; perhaps the best he's ever sounded? As for the lineup? Don't even get me started; I would wager that Peter McIntyre has never received such good value for money :-)

Yeah!

saw this bunch open for the Doobie Bros in Knoxville TN

He is not just about soloing into the blue. He tells storys

what a drummer !!!!!!

Bought this second-hand in the 80s for £1.50 - bargain! Never thought I'd see it! Interesting to hear the excised bit from 10:58 to 12:53 - I think Ken Scott was right to cut it for the album. I'm missing the guy who shouts "Yeah!" at the very end though.

Absolute, unbridled virtuosity

Some have told me that Billy had no technique. Well, I can see here how he dogs out that technique by sheer raw force arriving at that perfect form through ecstatic volition. This man's playing is an offering to the planet.

absolutely mind blowing.Have Shabazz LP, wore the drum solo out on Tenth Pin,so got cd.Cobham`s drums on this sound superb;still don`t know what make they are. (Fibes?)

this is the real deal

El más grande!!!!!!

Long Live Jazz Fusion!!🥁🎷🎺🎸🎹

Yes, both Brecker brothers played with Zappa, not in the regular band but as guests on multiple occasions. You can hear them on Zappa In New York, Lather and You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore Vol. 6. Zappa drummer Terry Bozzio also played with the Brecker Bros. band on Heavy Metal Bebop.

Thank you for this video! It should be against the law to play drums with such precision and speed.

I sat behind Jeff Beck at this gig

I just wanted to say that I'm disappointed that Randy Brecker plays exactly the same solo than on the album. Then I realized that it's a live album... (Probably I listened a bit too often to it when I remember the solo after 40 years... O_o) I hope this is the concert where the album was recorded...

Tom nice to see your Hendrix perm.

John Abercrombie. If I'm not mistaken, somewhere on Steve Khan's website, there's picture of him w/ Scofield, Steve Khan, and Bill Connors, from an article/interview they all did for some guitar magazine in the mid 1980s. Abercrombie is referred to as 'Crumbs' - Many Jazz Cats have one word, monikers/nicknames: Past=Bird, Dizz, Pops, Miles, Monk, Bud,'Trane, Sonny; and present : Pat, Sco, Stern, Frizz, Lieb, Chick, Herbie. I guess Abercrombie's is 'Crumbs', at least for close friends.

I was there

Mr paradidles = Cobham Mr Flams = Tony Willams Mr Singles= Buddy Mr Radamacue = Gadd Mr Press roll = Blackey

this shit is super heavy...people misuse the word "awesome" and "jam",musically not many are awe-inspiring nor do they jam in todays musical..popular music anyway

I guess if you say this era was his CTI sessions phase, this was his greatest era. I just don't associate that much of the CTI work with his greatness

It's hard to hear Abercrombie in all this.....amazing stuff throughout....