He still has it.
Billy Cobham, 74. One of the greatest drummers of our times.
At the Savoy JAZZFest on Friday evening, Cobham enchanted the audience with over five decades of drum mastery at the Savoy Theater in Helsinki with his ensemble consisting of other older musicians.
Cobham focused on songs from his early career albums: Spectrum (1973) and Crosswinds (1974).
He opened with “Crosswinds.” The song had a lazy, funky feel to warm up the audience, and after the warm-up, the high-rolling funky “The Pleasant Pheasant” followed.
At times during the set, Cobham seemed to zone out in a slightly careless state while hitting the cymbals, toms and the snare with very loose wrists. It quickly became clear that it was part of his panache. He constantly flipped drumming styles, a fusion man.
The group energized the audience with “Stratus” from Spectrum, prompting those north of middle age in attendance to tap their feet in unison to the catchy rhythm and heavy bassline. The younger crowd may have recognized the bassline as it was sampled by trip-hop group Massive Attack in their song “Safe From Harm.”
Cobham delivered another thundering solo that undoubtedly became one of the highlights.
”It’s so rare that I get to the few cities that I have a personal relationship,” Cobham said between songs. “To be in Savoy. Wow! We made it.”
Pudu. Pumm. Thwack! Soon, another drum solo rolled out at the beginning of one of his rarer songs, “Conundrum,” which was released in 2002 on a CD for drummers, along with a notation guide.
This gig turned out to be one of the difficult ones to remain seated for as your feet kept dancing in your seat and your head kept bouncing back and forth as if pecking in the air. But—phew! We made it anyway.
On Saturday American singer Jazzmeia Horn, 27, delivered a spellbinding session of scat singing at Savoy. She used her voice as an improvisational tool, creating rhythmic and melodic patterns with her vocal chords, much like a saxophone player would with his horn.
Instead of relying on her own material from her debut A Social Call (2017), Horn focused on reinterpretations of songs performed by some of the artists who had influenced her over time.
Horn, for example, turned the late Betty Carter’s “Please Do Something” into a high-speed scat singing drill, and continued with a lot of “dududududadidididi, lalalala, uuuuuuu!”
In the middle of her ninety-minute show, Horn announced she would perform one of the most played tunes on American radio, “A Timeless Place (The Peacocks).”
Horn infused the song, wrapped in a deep, moody piano melody, with the timeless quality and emotion found in past tunes performed by pioneers like Sarah Vaughan.
Horn’s honeyed tones floated across the room, followed by loud applause. The scat was replaced by chit-chat in the halls on the way to the exit, leaving everyone with another mesmerizing memory as a souvenir.
