SPECTRUM

I am very happy to see Mr. Cobham here on the Progarchives, he certainly deserves to be, even if it were to be based purely on Spectrum alone. Billy's first solo album broke much ground for Composer/drummers, and assured Mahavishnu fans that they were right about him being an equal partner to his fellow bandmates: Goodman, Hammer, McLaughlin & Laird.

Billy proved, with this amazingly well constructed and exhilarating record, that drummers could be far more than just "Timekeepers" (as he once put it). Bringing his old Mahavishnu band-mate Jam Hammer along for the ride was a smart move, and an even smarter move was getting some of Tommy Bolin's best licks ever down on record. Just marvel at Stratus if you will.

You can hear Bolin scream in similar fashion on Alphonse Mouzon's Mind Transplant, another album worth pursuing if you like this one. You hear a much more restrained Tommy on Deep Purple's Come Taste The Band too, but it's nothing like the all-out sonic attack on the senses that Spectrum is.