C&L's Late Night Music Club with Tommy Bolin and Billy Cobham
I couldn't wait to buy Billy Cobham’s record called "Spectrum," when it was released back in '73. Billy was the dynamic drummer from the "Mahavishnu Orchestra," at the time and he had much love in the Rock community. The sample for tonight is the song called "Stratus."
Download -MP3 (sample)

If I'm not mistaken, Jeff Beck cited this album as his main influence for "Blow by Blow." I’d never heard of Tommy Bolin before this record and I had always wondered why Cobham chose him. Read Tommy’s website for the history behind this alliance. It's fascinating and this guitar solo ranks with some of the best ever recorded. Sklar's bass line ain't bad either and was "sampled by Massive Attack for "Safe" from their hit 1991 album Blue Lines."

Check out this lineup:

Billy Cobham: drums, percussion
Tommy Bolin: guitar
Jan Hammer: piano, synthesizer
Lee Sklar: bass
Ron Carter: acoustic bass
Jimmy Owens: flugelhorn
Joe Farrell: flute, saxophones
Ray Barretto: congas
John Tropea: guitar (on "Le Lis")

I played a couple of gigs with Glenn Hughes (the former singer /bass player of Deep Purple) and Ronnie Montrose, a few years ago and it was at the "NAMM" show in Anaheim that I met Tommy's brother. He shared with me some of his favorite memories of his late brother and I told him how much Tommy influenced my playing even though I'm a sax player. I'm a rocker at heart. I hope you enjoy.

Here's the link again to purchase this great record...