Billy Cobham @ The Dakota 10/1/19

I saw 90% of the 1st set last night at The Dakota, of Billy Cobham's band play CROSSWINDS.

He played I believe most if not the entire Crosswinds album.

His band consisted of

Billy Cobham (drums)
Fareed Haque (guitar)
Tim Landers (bass)
Osam Elelwy (keyboard)
Paul Hanson (bassoon)
Randy Brecker (trumpet) – Special Guest

Crosswinds
Spanish Moss – 'A Sound Portrait'
The Pleasant Pheasant
Heather
Crosswind

Under the Baobab Tree
Snoopy's Search

I may be missing a track or 2, but then again, I arrived at like 7:10, so I missed the 1st 10 minutes or so.

Great to see Billy again, my 1st time since 2013 (my only other time seeing him live). He has such an addictive snare tone, like none-other, I sometimes just get lost in hearing it.

Fareed Haque and especially Randy Brecker were also a very big deal to see, playing with Billy. The Crosswinds album I'll admit to owning, but never listening to, per I have it only on Vinyl. I think I bought it for like $2 or $3 in fact. But it is the album that follows Spectrum, and the 1st cut "Spanish Moss" is a side-long epic, which for that alone I am guilty to have slept on.

I mean every piece they played last night had great, chilling, goosebump moments even beyond Billy's solos. Although I literally was in the FRONT ROW 15 feet away from him. At 75 years old or whatever he is, he still pulls this stuff off. And I didn't want to miss him again given who knows how many times, if ever, he'll be back.

THE DAKOTA: I'll be as tactful as I can be. But let's just say the amount of Elbow Room and close-proximity to the table I was sitting at almost made the Minnesota Zoo's amphitheater seem less claustrophobic.

And the fact someone actually was sitting in the Seat I paid for, lol. I found the seat I did at the same table and didn't bother telling the other person they were in my seat. I mean I arrived 10 minutes after the show started, but that still is no excuse.

That and the crowd seemed to be mostly Businessmen who probably have never heard a Mahavishnu Orchestra record in their life. The usual Dakota customer who comes to dine and has more money than they know what to do with.

It's fine, but it still pales in comparison to the experiences I used to love among the Jazz fanatics when they were located in Bandana Square or the group that would show up at the old Artist Quarter.

But so be it. I still got to see Billy Cobham again, maybe my favorite or 2nd favorite Jazz drummer (with respect to Mr. Wertico).

Significant Albums: Jerry Goodman and Jan Hammer - Like Children (1974)

Odd enough in the random numbers this record comes up right after another record from 1974 in Yes's Relayer. Maybe 1974 was the year of Jazz-Rock? lol

Anyway, this album I find to be the best thing any of the members of Mahavishnu Orchestra have ever done. Even though a few of the songs were recorded on what ended up as The Lost Trident Sessions, and performed live with Mahavishnu on Between Nothingness and Eternity. The stuff on here, and those versions of "Stepping Tones," "Sister Andrea," and "I Wonder," I prefer. There is something about the less-is-more and clean production on this record which always wins me over.

My friend Creighton once brought this album down to KFAI and played 4 or 5 cuts off of it on the air. He didn't mention who it was until after playing them. And I will never forget how much he stressed in finding a copy of it, at the now long since gone, record store in St.Paul, MN (the store might have been called "One Stop Music Shop"? but I'm not certain). He mentioned how shocked he was to find it, and thought he'd never see a copy after his friend Tim had showed him it years before.

I'm not sure entirely how rare it was, but it certainly is less well known than most of the classic Mahavishnu records.

I guess as much as I love John McLaughlin and Billy Cobham especially, there is something incredibly warm and vintage about the way Jan Hammer and Jerry Goodman not only were featured on their primary instruments (keys and violin), but also Hammer on drums and Goodman on guitars. They fit each piece so well. And the production, both the original and the remaster, I just am in awe how clean and clear it is.

The songs themselves: "Country and Eastern Music" is a rocker that even the vocals stand out in many ways.

Like Children....., they are free to be up or down...
Dance to Country and Eastern Music, Feel the sweet balance of Life!..

I adore not only Hammer's moog synths on this track, but that gunning guitar riff is really ballsy. Also the bass line, which may be from Mahavishnu's Rick Laird, as I know he plays on some of this album, but which tracks specifically? I'd have to look it up.

Some of my other favorites include "Earth Still Our Home," "No Fear," "Stepping Tones," "Full Moon Boogie" and the closing track "Giving in Gently/I Wonder" is a favorite.  The walking piano on "I Wonder" I totally love. And Goodman's guitar part more or less takes some of what McLaughlin did on the Mahavishnu version, and made it his own.

This album can sound a little bit like a 70's hippie record; but with some tight compositions, that are both laden in Jazz and Rock (or prog). But it has its funky side, it's dynamics, its textures. Yet, it always sounds stripped down in a good way.

Maybe it was like if you took Mahavishnu or Return to Forever, and isolated a lot of the great melodic and harmonic ideas, and added some adequate vocal lines. When I listen to it, I feel like I'm living in 1974, hanging out at the lake on a sunny afternoon in July. Looking at a river, or a garden or a meadow or something, and am at peace. It really is a record I find is bright in tone and mood. Could drugs have made some impact on it? sure, perhaps, but what music being made in 1974 didn't?

And while I do enjoy a lot of the other Mahavishnu records and related works, I just find this album stands out as a blend of their sound and other influences in great way. Is it dated? some probably feel that's the case, but the remastering job I find does help alleviate some of that.