There's always a towelling bandana tied around Billy Cobham’s shaven head. Not to keep the hair out of his face, obviously, but to keep the sweat out of his eyes, because Billy is one of the great jazz drummers. It was also observed last night that [a] he is left-handed and [b] he dropped a stick on the opening number but covered the slip so brilliantly that almost nobody noticed it.
His material was less easy to disguise. Though intriguingly billed as Tales from the Skeleton Coast, familiar numbers such as Crosswinds resurfaced, performed by familiar faces from his previous tour. Never mind. It was good to hear Jean-Pierre Ecay again, the Gallic guitarist who stirs high-speed licks into slo-mo Santana sustain and manages to look clean-cut with shoulder-length hair. Also Junior Gill, whose steel-pan lines cut through jazz-rock drum-and-bass like a laser beam, and Brazilian keyboard diva Camelia Ben Naceur, the hippest soloist in the band.
Billy’s solos were surprisingly delicate, almost conversational snare figures punctuated by light bass-drum shots and linked by the smoothest press-rolls in the business. There’s much more to him than a heavy backbeat.
Until Saturday (020 7439-0747, ronniescotts.co.uk)
