A new Version of Stratus

I thought you guys might like to hear the version of Stratus as performed on the new HBC album which features Scott Henderson, Jeff Berlin and Dennis Chambers .

I mentioned this album a couple of weeks ago and just got it today from Audiophile Imports.

It's quite good, and they cover a number of songs by Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, one by Herbie Hancock and a few they wrote themselves. Also this one by Boomer ! Of course, Dennis has always stated that Boomr is one of his main influences as a drummer, and Jeff Berlin has toured with Boomer back in the day with T. Lavitz so there is a history there.

Check it out, and hope you enjoy it !


www.drumminfool.com/recent/HBC-Stratus.mp3





Peace, TED

Very cool, Ted. I Really dug the polyrhythmic,
3 against 4, 16th note shuffle pattern Dennis
threw in the bridge.

I gotta admit, however how surprised I was at
the sloppy press roll he played to bring in the
tune.

Outside of that, DC was rippin! Cool arrangement!

Thanks Ted for the info and the link. Have to get this cd. Found this video clip by Dennis Chambers the other day. Billy Cobham’s strong influence can be heard here. Also the sound of Chamber’s toms on this clip is similar to the drum sound on Cobham’s Total Eclipse and Shabazz albums. Those Chamber’s single strokes are really ”explosive” here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAkMrEcxQVk&feature=related

Kind regards,
Anders

I believe that Chambers solo has been posted on this forum a few times. Powerful stuff.

It's very interesting to hear how someone interprets music long engrained in our minds from another artist. I'm so used to hearing Billy play Stratus hearing Dennis seems ... I don't know ... foreign, even though he does a nice job. Sounds silly, but it's almost like Stratus has a legendary, sanctified drumming footprint on it and the rest of us ought not to encroach upon it, if you know what I mean.

I remember walking into a drum shop in Maine one day and Quadrant 4 was playing. I knew it was not the original and assumed it was Billy doing a remake. I said, Wow, man, Billy still has that energy. The guy said, That's not Billy, that's a local guy's band." My first thought was negative - don't walk on that ground. That's Billy Cobham's yard. But the guy was very good, and his band nailed the piece. I guess he did a tribute CD, and as it happened Billy did a clinic in Portland and this guy walked up to Billy and gave him the CD. The guy had a strange personality. Very loud. He talked all through the clinic and everybody could hear him. Billy seemed ... less than happy to have the guy just come up to him in the middle of his clinic while he sat at the edge of the stage. I was told the guy has a heart of gold though.

For some reason Chambers' drums sound cleaner at the beginning than the solo at the end. Did anyone else notice that?

Asaph,

I didn't notice the difference in clarity
until you mentioned it... You're right
but there also a lot of other stuff going
on while he's soloing at the end. I think
that contributes to the sound character
you speak of.

I've always liked Scott Henderson but I'm
having a bit of trouble getting behind his
solo in this cut.

Getting back to Dennis, I love his drum
sound, especially his toms. Lots of attack
with clean, round, resonate, tones. Actually,
I'd like to hear Billy use heads that allowed
more attack from his toms as I think his style
of play warrants that.

Of course that's just my own personal opinion.

but it's almost like Stratus has a legendary, sanctified drumming footprint on it and the rest of us ought not to encroach upon it, if you know what I mean.

I understand precisely what you mean... The
real truth is the original will ALWAYS be THE one.
Billy has produced several arrangements of this
and the one from the "Spectrum" album is still top
dog.

hey dudes, posted this a few years ago, but it seems timely again. Scott's a long time fan of Billy; here he is playing Stratus circa 1976 at a local club with a trio called Pulse. Scott gave me permission to share it a few years ago, but I'll probably take it down after a bit as he wasn't so happy about lots of these old recordings I put up on Soundcloud after personally digitizing the old cassettes I got from the drummer's estate sale when he passed, personal friend Harry Johnson. Harry was a great drummer and the first musician I met when moving here to Florida. When I was asked to give drum lessons to my nephew I instead gifted him lessons with Harry who was a loved person in this community for lots of good reason. On bass is someone named Rocky Henning who local musicians don't seem to recall!
http://www.fileden.com/files/2008/10/18/2149036//HARRYJOHNSONStratus.mp3

I always thought Scott and Billy should tour; would be pretty exciting and maybe the next best thing to Tommy Bolin; probably better.

Thanks for putting up that version of Stratus with Scott Henderson from 1976. Very enjoyable and the drummer did an excellent job on this track. Somehow I like Henderson’s previous style more than his current, more abstract and free form playing. I bought the HBC (Henderson-Berlin-Chambers) cd that Ted originally introduced on this topic and I’m having trouble getting behind some of Henderson’s solos on this album. However I have always enjoyed Henderson’s solos and guitar playing on those Tribal Tech albums (especially the earlier ones). Here’s a videoclip of Scott Henderson with the Chick Corea Electric Band back in 1986. This clip has probably been put up on this message board before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvoPL6Ezn70