Billy Cobham's Culturemix: New Morning--The Paris Concert

Born in 1944, drummer Billy Cobham had already played with Horace Silver and Miles Davis (he appeared on Bitches Brew) when he joined guitarist John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu Orchestra in the early ‘70s. With their bravura technical skills and high intensity (not to mention high decibel) approach, Mahavishnu--along with Weather Report, Chick Corea's Return to Forever, and Herbie Hancock's Headhunters (all featuring Davis alumni)--became one of the leading proponents of jazz fusion, bringing Cobham to lasting prominence. Although Cobham is still a powerhouse player, his limited compositional skills (which have never been in the same league as Corea's or Weather Report's Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter's) are apparent in New Morning--The Paris Concert, a 2002 performance consisting of standard issue jazz-rock with funky underpinnings. The music here is generally less meretricious and pounding than in the McLaughlin days (in fact, some of it sounds like smooth jazz, albeit with a heavier hand), but the emphasis is still on grooves and riffs rather than melodies and interesting changes. Percussionist Junior Gill adds some refreshing new colors via the steel pan (a.k.a. steel drum), and there are almost enough world music influences to merit the Culturemix label; however, this stuff simply doesn't have much staying power, and nearly two hours of it (albeit presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound) is wearisome (you know you're in for a long night when the best parts of a show are the drum solos). Not a necessary purchase. Aud: P. (S. Graham)