Now released Guy Barker has conducted and arranged Billy Cobham’s new big band album Broad Horizon, the legendary Panamanian-American jazz-rock drummer famed for his tenure in the Mahavishnu Orchestra and his own deeply influential albums Spectrum and Crosswinds harking back to his 1970s heyday.

Snuck out with very little fanfare, just goes to show how even bona fide legends struggle to get the word out in an uncaring industry landscape dominated by dross, but truly a must for Cobham fans the snippet above is of ‘Cancun Market’ the third of eight tracks. Listening to the whole album earlier I’d wager it’s his best work in a long while with a zest for life therein that is quite infectious, full of an incredibly pulsating drive and possessing a real panoramic sweep in the arrangements, very different indeed to his smaller units I’ve heard within the last decade in clubs.

Of course ‘Red Baron’ is included, as it often is at the drop of a hat by Cobham and never palls, kept to last, the Spectrum classic where Cobham shows his hi-hat/bass combination and snare drum mastery on one of his most significant works as a composer understandably widely covered by the jazz-rock fraternity whenever the frequently leather-trouser wearing ones meet in any significant number. 

The big band in question with him is the Frankfurt Radio Big Band whose South African-flavoured album with Julian Argüelles won big at the 2016 Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Barker has worked with Cobham a good deal over the years as a touring sideman and it’s good to see him here in a context beyond the big band and vocals settings that he is more customarily found particularly during London Jazz Festival time. Crucially there is a velvet touch displayed by all concerned allied with the power of the band. Broad Horizon was recorded in a Frankfurt radio studio in 2013, produced by Cobham in association with Hessischer radio and is issued by the drummer’s own Creative Multimedia Concepts label and is obtainable via Amazon. SG