The Panamanian-born drummer is still regarded today as the ultimate in fusion drums - no other combines rock aggressiveness so conclusively and breathtakingly with the complexity of jazz. Billy Cobham drove groundbreaking works by Miles Davis ("Live-Evil") and the Mahavishnu Orchestra ("The Inner Mounting Flame", "Birds Of Fire"), which he co-founded, to the forefront before taking off for his solo career on Atlantic in 1973. With "Spectrum" he succeeded in creating a classic that has lost nothing of its class to this day, recorded in just three days in a quartet with keyboarder Jan Hammer, guitarist Tommy Bolin and bassist Lee Sklar, who is still in great demand today. The track "Stratus" also survived as a sample in the massive attack hit "Safe From Harm" - a late echo of Cobham's own experiments with electronic percussion. In 1974 he recruited keyboarder George Duke, the Brecker brothers and guitarist John Abercrombie for the completely self-composed "Crosswinds". In the same year Cobham made his piano debut on "Total Eclipse" ("The Moon Ain't Made Of Green Cheese") and drummed his way solo to "Last Frontier", while Abercrombie found funk in the classic "Moon Germs". But it didn't get really funky until 1975 on "The Funky Thide Of Sings" (sic!), when John Scofield played guitar and Cobham immortalized perhaps his best solo with the quasi-title track "The Funky Kind Of Thing". Finally, the album "Shabazz" presents Billy Cobham and his Total Eclipse band live in Montreux at the height of their abilities with two new compositions (title track, "Tenth Pin") as well as excitingly improvised new editions of the "Spectrum" tracks "Taurian Matador" and "Red Baron".