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Got it bad, got it bad, got it bad...for Billy Cobham's double bass shuffle!
I've been a big Mahavishnu Orchestra kick lately thanks to author and Mahavishnu Historian Walter Kolosky. Kolosky recently visited the Booked On Rock podcast to talk about his recent book Mahavishnu Memories: The Remarkable Tour History of the Legendary Mahavishnu Orchestra. Ahead of the interview, I knew little to nothing about this band but I am now officially under the Mahavishnu spell.
There is one piece of Mahavishnu-related trivia I did know and that's the connection between Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" and Cobham's solo song "Quadrant 4". Before we get to that, though, here's a bit of background on Mr. Cobham:
Prior to his time with the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cobham started the jazz rock group Dreams with Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Barry Rogers, and John Abercrombie. He then went on to record with Miles Davis and appeared on Davis's albums A Tribute to Jack Johnson and Big Fun. In 1971, Cobham and guitarist John McLaughlin started the Mahavishnu Orchestra and recorded two studio albums, The Inner Mounting Flame (1971) and Birds of Fire (1973), along with one live album, Between Nothingness & Eternity (1973) before that version of the band broke up.
Cobham immediately went to work on his debut solo album, Spectrum, and it was released in October of '73. The album surpassed both his and the record label's expectations when it reached number one on the Billboard magazine Jazz Albums chart and No. 26 on the Top 200 Albums chart. Quite impressive when you think about it. Cobham was keeping sales pace with albums mostly catered to a mainstream audience who bought records based on the latest pop single played on the radio. Cobham's songs, however, were instrumental, intricate, and didn't follow the standard "pop song" format. Yet, music fans couldn't resist what they were hearing. As one fan states on Reddit, "Those long extended intro drum solos leading into each song are exquisite."
Among the many who got their hands on a copy of Spectrum was a teenage aspiring musician living in Pasadena, CA named Alex Van Halen. Before becoming a drummer, he intended to be a guitarist. That was until his little brother Edward picked up his guitar and started playing it. Alex quickly realized the guitar wasn't meant for him. He was more interested in playing his brother's drum kit. As it turned out, the drums were as cosmically connected to Alex as the guitar was to Edward and the brothers decided to swap instruments. The drums became Alex's passion from that point on. When he got a copy of Cobham's Spectrum, he loved what he heard, particularly the song "Quadrant 4" with its heart-pounding, adrenaline-pumping double bass shuffle beat.
Almost a decade later, Alex was able to pay homage to Cobham when he created an extended, exquisite drum intro of his own on the Van Halen song "Hot For Teacher" from the band's mega-hit album 1984. Alex's intro is now one of the most iconic in rock history.
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