CLASSICS THAT I HATE

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It might be going to far to say that I hate Spectrum, but let’s face it — considering the talent of the musicians involved in this recording, the results are underwhelming, to put it kindly.

Let’s see: Billy Cobham on drums, Jan Hammer on keyboards, Ron Carter on bass, Ray Barretto on congas, Joe Farrell on flute and soprano sax, and alright, there are a few lesser musicians too like Lee Sklar on bass and Tommy Bolin on guitar, but on the basis of the first five guys, Spectrum should have been mindblowing.

I understand — Billy Cobham was sick of playing 11/8 and other odd time signatures in Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was frustrated John McLaughlin wasn’t interested in recording any of his compositions. Billy Cobham wanted to do his own thing. Too bad his own thing turns out to be fairly uninteresting jazz flavored R&B. The compositions are all by Billy Cobham and frankly, they’re boring. They slide in one ear and out the other.

I dunno — maybe Cobham told Jan Hammer not to play any of that “crazy jazz shit.” Maybe Hammer was already dumbing down his music in anticipate of his ill advised forays into pop. Whatever the reason, Hammer’s improvisations on Spectrum just aren’t very impressive.

It doesn’t help matters that guitarist Tommy Bolin is basically a wanker. It would be another five or six years before jazz guitarists could play R&B, blues, and rock licks and make it sound any good. Probably John Scofield was the first to pull it off, unless you count Allan Holdsworth (I probably should).

What’s left? A bunch of limp-wristed R&B bull. Mind you, Spectrum is pleasant enough background music, but it should have been much more.

Incredibly, considering that Spectrum is pretty much universally lauded as a fusion classic, a widget for Spectrum is unavailable, but there’s one for the Billy Cobham box set Anthology, which includes most of the songs on Spectrum. Fortunately, they’re in order. Check out the first four songs, and you should have a pretty good idea what Spectrum sounds like.

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