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A CONTIUATION FROM THE THREAD: BILLY COBHAM: THE MAN THE MUSIC AND THE PEOPLE THAT HELP HIM MAKE IT.
"Billy, you say that George Duke writes some hard tunes, but your music is hard, man."
- Me
"Billy's music is relentless! As soon as you get past one twist ,here comes another turn."
- Dean Brown
"Yeah, the stuff I write is hard but it's not purposely designed that way, it's just what I hear."
- Billy Cobham
"George Duke was here last week, he had this young kid with him named Ron Bruner. He was incredible but he was all over the place, he just beat up the set. But this guy (referring to Billy) plays all these cool rhythms with those nice tastey licks in between."
- Security guard at Yoshi's in San Francisco
These are a few of the many comments I heard regarding The music Billy and Company performed at Yoshi's in S.F.
Yes, I concur! Billy's music is quite difficult to execute, but not in the normal fashion. An artist like Chick Corea for example may have a bunch of very challenging lines that the band will play in unison. The lines could be in odd meter, may break time or whatever... Billy's tunes seems to be written in such a way that there will be a strong and continuing groove foundation but wthin it is this outrageously difficult melody line played by one or more of the musicians. I have noticed that sometimes Billy will write a two part melody line that will divide and weave it's way in and out of the groove. For example, listen to the line thats played during the chorus on his tune AC-DC and also at the very end.
There were some things going on in this one piece they performed called Obliquely Speaking that I think was giving Dean nightmares, as he had to play some really outside melody lines in this tune. Being the trooper and hard worker he is though, he did a nice job with this by mid week.
Dynamics is also a very important and strong arsenal of Billy's music. These dynamics are used not just with volume control but also by either total leaving something out as an individual or as an entire band. For instance, in the tune Mirage on the cd at the end, the tune ends on a 16th note that hits twice at the very end. But live, Billy silences the first 16th note and only plays the last one. This one little thing adds a huge effect and a nice twist to the song.
There is also a wide veriety in the music he plays. It can have you stomping your feet and be bowling you over one minute, and having you sobbing the next. Geez, if you could have only heard his arrangement of Heather with the jazz quartet in Oakland... Wow! Another cool thing Billy does concerning his music is to constantly rearrange or maybe I should say add to the arrangements of his older tunes, always keeping a fresh perspective on them. I hope someday you all get a chance to experience his live version of Moon germs Groove city for days!
Whenever Billy comes out with a new cd you never quite know what to expect. As far as I'm concerned, that's a wonderful inconsistancy.
That's the man and his music from my seat.
Next up: The people that help him make it.
Don.
"Billy, you say that George Duke writes some hard tunes, but your music is hard, man."
- Me
"Billy's music is relentless! As soon as you get past one twist ,here comes another turn."
- Dean Brown
"Yeah, the stuff I write is hard but it's not purposely designed that way, it's just what I hear."
- Billy Cobham
"George Duke was here last week, he had this young kid with him named Ron Bruner. He was incredible but he was all over the place, he just beat up the set. But this guy (referring to Billy) plays all these cool rhythms with those nice tastey licks in between."
- Security guard at Yoshi's in San Francisco
These are a few of the many comments I heard regarding The music Billy and Company performed at Yoshi's in S.F.
Yes, I concur! Billy's music is quite difficult to execute, but not in the normal fashion. An artist like Chick Corea for example may have a bunch of very challenging lines that the band will play in unison. The lines could be in odd meter, may break time or whatever... Billy's tunes seems to be written in such a way that there will be a strong and continuing groove foundation but wthin it is this outrageously difficult melody line played by one or more of the musicians. I have noticed that sometimes Billy will write a two part melody line that will divide and weave it's way in and out of the groove. For example, listen to the line thats played during the chorus on his tune AC-DC and also at the very end.
There were some things going on in this one piece they performed called Obliquely Speaking that I think was giving Dean nightmares, as he had to play some really outside melody lines in this tune. Being the trooper and hard worker he is though, he did a nice job with this by mid week.
Dynamics is also a very important and strong arsenal of Billy's music. These dynamics are used not just with volume control but also by either total leaving something out as an individual or as an entire band. For instance, in the tune Mirage on the cd at the end, the tune ends on a 16th note that hits twice at the very end. But live, Billy silences the first 16th note and only plays the last one. This one little thing adds a huge effect and a nice twist to the song.
There is also a wide veriety in the music he plays. It can have you stomping your feet and be bowling you over one minute, and having you sobbing the next. Geez, if you could have only heard his arrangement of Heather with the jazz quartet in Oakland... Wow! Another cool thing Billy does concerning his music is to constantly rearrange or maybe I should say add to the arrangements of his older tunes, always keeping a fresh perspective on them. I hope someday you all get a chance to experience his live version of Moon germs Groove city for days!
Whenever Billy comes out with a new cd you never quite know what to expect. As far as I'm concerned, that's a wonderful inconsistancy.
That's the man and his music from my seat.
Next up: The people that help him make it.
Don.
