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Billy Cobham is joined by Randy Brecker and Kenny Barron at Yoshi's in Oakland, April 16-20 |
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Written by Ronaldo Oregano
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Sunday, 13 April 2008 |
 Billy Cobham in 1974 © Gisle Hannemyr
After a week at Yoshi’s San Francisco spent revisiting the influential jazz fusion of his 1973 debut Spectrum, the peerless drummer Billy Cobham mvoes across the bay to the Oakland Yoshi's for what should be a more straight-ahead affair. Cobham will lead a all-star quartet featuring Kenny Barron on piano, John B. Williams on bass, and longtime colleague Randy Brecker on trumpet. Billy Cobham has performed on hundreds of records with his own groups and with some of the music’s most luminary artists, and his trademark - biggest, fastest, explosive drumming - has energized the international stages of concerts, symphonies, big bands, Broadway, festivals, television and video. He has been a teacher of his artistry, giving drum clinics, conducting workshops and symposiums throughout the world. His stylistic influence, which has literally created a category of music, is an outstanding part of the history of modern music.
Since 1980 Billy Cobham has been dividing his time between his home in Zurich and the United States where he lived in New York City and northern California until that time, underscoring his unique internationally influenced origins as a musician. Born May 16th, 1944 in Panama, surrounded by talented parents and a brother, Wayne (producer, horn player, midi specialist, writer), Billy’s love for drums was kindled by his cousins who played and constructed steel drums and congas in Panama. Some of his earliest memories are of himself playing Timbales.
The Cobhams moved to New York City in 1947, when Billy was 3 years old. He had his stage debut in performance with his father at the age of 8. Cobham developed his seriously voracious appetite for drumming in the highly competitive Drum and Bugle Corps. arena with St. Catherine’s Queensmen, prompting him to attend New York’s famed High School of Music and Art to study music theory and drum technique with seminars by such renowned talents as Thelonious Monk and Stan Getz. Cobham remembers "In those days, Jazz was a bit off-limits to students while classical music was preferred by the education establishment. So, of course students craved to meet jazz artists.
Miles Davis was the most talked about personality of the time and had the best musicians working with him. "We’d listen to him and analyze, as we did with other professionals. But in those days, all roads did lead to Miles." He was the goal to shoot for because he had a knack for putting the right components together (musicians and music) to convey the ultimate message through Jazz.
 Randy Brecker
Randy Brecker has been shaping the sound of Jazz, R & B and Rock for more than three decades. In addition to his own recordings (including the recent “Some Skunk Funk” in collaboration with his late brother, saxophonist Michael Brecker), Randy’s trumpet and flugelhorn performances have graced hundreds of albums by a wide range of artists from James Taylor, Bruce Springsteen, Chaka Khan, George Benson and Parliament-Funkadelics to Frank Sinatra, Steely Dan, David Sanborn, Horace Silver, Jaco Pastorius and Frank Zappa.
Kenny Barron’s unmatched ability to mesmerize audiences with his elegant playing, sensitive melodies and infectious rhythms is what inspired The Los Angles Times to name him "one of the top jazz pianists in the world” and Jazz Weekly to call him “The most lyrical piano player of our time.”
 Kenny Barron
Billy Cobham & Friends at Yoshi's, Oakland Featuring Kenny Barron, Randy Brecker, and John B. Williams- Apr 16, 2008 - Apr 20, 2008
- Wed & Thurs 8pm $20 & 10pm $12
- Fri 8pm $24 & 10pm $16
- Sat both shows $24
- Sun 7pm $24 & 9pm $16
For tickets and more details visit yoshis.com. Yoshi's at Jack London Square is located at 510 Embarcadero West between Washington and Clay Streets around the corner from the Jack London Square Cinema Complex on Washington. Yoshi's is on the ground floor on the front side of the seven-story parking structure. |
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 Saturday, 17 May 2008
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