Billy Cobham — Koala Music

01Biography

The drummer who reinvented fusion.

Fifty years after Spectrum, the legend is still on stage.

Born in Panama on May 16, 1944 and raised in Brooklyn, Billy Cobham earned his first paycheck at the age of eight, playing in a drum and bugle corps in Queens. Trained at the renowned LaGuardia High School of Music & Art, he studied music theory and drum technique, before serving as a percussionist in the U.S. Army band from 1965 to 1968.

His career quickly took off: Horace Silver's Band, recording sessions with George Benson, and then the jazz-rock outfit Dreams, which he co-founded in 1969 with the Brecker brothers. The following year, he joined Miles Davis's new fusion ensemble and took part in the Bitches Brew sessions, as well as Live-Evil and A Tribute to Jack Johnson, where he crossed paths with guitarist John McLaughlin.

In 1971, he became a founding member of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, whose first three albums became landmarks. His solo record Spectrum (1973), cut at Electric Lady Studios, stands as one of the most influential works in jazz-fusion history. Still going strong, Cobham now celebrates that legacy with his Time Machine, a revamped version of the original Billy Cobham Band.

Book this artist →

02On stage