1973 Billy Cobham – Spectrum

Spectrum is the debut album by jazz fusion drummer Billy Cobham. The album contains much influence of the music of Miles Davis and Mahavishnu Orchestra, with whom Cobham had previously collaborated extensively.

Ken Scott, producer and engineer of Spectrum, on recording Cobham’s drums: “Bill Cobham’s drums were treated in exactly the same way as I recorded every other drummer. I just used more mics: Neumann U67s on toms, D20s or RE20s (at Electric Lady) on the bass drums, Neumann KM54 or 56 on snare, and either STC 4038s or Beyer M160 ribbon mics for the overheads. One other thing: in order to dampen the snare, Bill just laid his wallet on the top head.”

Leland Sklar, bassist on Spectrum: “Spectrum is such a benchmark for so many people. There was a sort of fire in it. It was new ground and it wasn’t very analytical. It was more flying by the seat of your pants. That’s where great accidents happen, which seems impossible these days. We never did more than a couple of takes on any of it. It was more or less a two-day record. It went by so fast.”