From John Abercrombie’s Timeless classic on ECM, we follow the guitarist to another proto-ambient wonder of the fusion world: Billy Cobham’s ‘Heather’ from the Atlantic album Crosswinds (1974).
We last heard the Panama-born drummer’s polyrhythmic wizardry on Mahavishnu Orchestra’s The Inner Mounting Flame (1971). Ironically for a man devoted to self-transcendence, bandleader John McLaughlin refused to feature other people’s compositions on Mahavishnu albums (Mahavishnu was McLaughlin’s spiritual name) so Cobham started leading sessions to record his own material, starting with 1973’s Spectrum – a high-intensity fusion landmark featuring Jan Hammer on keys, delivering alien-sounding grooves like ‘Stratus’ (familiar to anyone who’s played Grand Theft Auto IV) and ‘Snoopy’s Search/Red Baron’, one of the all-time great funk earworms.
Cobham returned to Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Lady Studios in New York the following year to record Crosswinds, whose brass and woodwind instrumentation created a more natural, expansive sound. Its cover art an atmospheric (literally) photo taken by Cobham, the record opens with ‘Spanish Moss – A Sound Portrait’ – a kind of elemental tone poem that moves through different meteorological moods, including a thunderous Cobham solo on the sweeping ‘Storm’ section.
Incidentally, the first time Ollie and I went to see Cobham he was performing the entirety of Crosswinds at the Jazz Cafe in Camden. I hadn’t actually heard the album when we got tickets, so when Ollie messaged me “BRING ON THE PLEASANT PHEASANT!” I just assumed he’d gone mad. ‘The Pleasant Pheasant’ is the first track on side two, pulling us out of the first side’s impressionistic soundscape with a straight-up feel-good funk-fest full of punchy horns and bendy synths.
Before the infectious Abercrombie feature ‘Crosswind’ closes the album, we get the serene standout track ‘Heather’ – a beautiful, reflective ballad that Cobham wrote after visiting Hiroshima while on tour with Mahavishnu. Later sampled by Souls of Mischief’s ’93 ’til Infinity’ (1993), the piece hums with ethereal ambience and emotional depth, amplified by George Duke’s glistening keys and a crying saxophone solo from Michael Brecker. That this deeply moving cut is sandwiched between chronic toe-tappers ‘The Pleasant Pheasant’ and ‘Crosswind’ tells you everything about ’70s fusion.
Hear more from Cobham on our ‘In The Pocket’ playlist or stay ‘In A Tranquil Mood’ on Spotify.
If you enjoyed this post and want to stay updated, make sure to subscribe to our Spotify playlist and follow us on Instagram and Twitter!
