E. Doctor Smith's Blog

Legendary drummer Billy Cobham returns to Yoshi’s in Oakland for a two night stint beginning Tuesday and featuring local bassoon virtuoso Paul Hanson, guitarist Fareed Haque, keyboardist Scott Tibbs and bassist Tim Landers, an alumni from Cobham’s 1980’s group Glass Menagerie. 73 years young, Cobham continues to both inspire and amaze; his ability to inject new life into his extensive repertoire has been thrilling audiences the world over. Following the successes of his Spectrum 40 bands with Gary Husband, Ric Fierrabracci, and Dean Brown, (another Glass Menagerie alum); The NDR and Guy Barker Big Bands, as well as his European sextets with Camelia Ben Naceur, Steve Hamilton, Christian Galvez, Jean Marie Ecay, and Junior Gil, Cobham has turned his talents toward his now classic second album, “Crosswinds”. One of Cobham’s best recordings for the Atlantic label, Crosswinds featured the late saxophonist Michael Brecker, guitarist John Abercrombie, and keyboardist George Duke in what ha...

Drummer Simon Phillips returns to Yoshi’s in Oakland this Thursday night for what promises to be a most interesting show. Thursday’s show is actually a rescheduled performance, following the loss of Phillips’ home to the fires in Ventura last December. The tour has now resumed, with shows that began in New York, then off to Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and now Oakland. Those who have followed Phillips’ musical career closely, know his musical prowess knows no bounds, supporting the likes of Pete Townsend, Stanley Clarke, the rock group Toto and most recently, Hiromi’s Trio Project with Anthony Jackson. Phillips returns with the latest incarnation of his solo group Protocol, featuring new guitarist Greg Howe, keyboardist Otmaro Ruiz, and returning bassist, the ever tasty Ernest Tibbs. Phillips’ earlier versions of Protocol, (II & III), saw the fiery guitar work of Andy Timmons and the fabulous textures of keyboardist Steve Weingart propel Protocol to stand among some of t...

Billy Cobham's 1992 Mapex Saturn Ad In 1991, drummer Billy Cobham became one the newly formed, Mapex Drum Company's best known endorsements and consultants, between his previous deal with Tama Drums, and before he subsequently signed with Yamaha. Cobham was soon seen playing Mapex kits on tour with a variety of live acts: With Peter Gabriel, Terje Rypdal, Wayne Krantz and many others. A 1994 customized, Emerald Green Mapex kit that he once used with Gabriel was recently seen on eBay for a whopping $10,000, and listed a “Certificate of Authenticity” signed by Cobham himself. The CoA listed each drum, and even included a previously sold, nearly identical, Cherry Red Mapex kit that Cobham would also use whenever he needed to leap-frog from venue to venue to save time setting up his monster kit. That maple kit was a bit too pricey for me to say the least, and to be honest, I was never fond of how those vintage Mapex "low mass" drum lug and rod systems really looked. ...

Well gentle readers, it's been awhile since my last post, but now that 2018 is here, I'm ready to roll! Being an artist, and a man who likes to work with his hands, I’ve managed to build more than a few drum kits from scratch, as well as several snare drums. To date, I’ve restored 2 vintage 14” x 5.5” Gretsch maple snare drums; a 14” x 5” Ddrum birch snare; a Yamaha 14” x 6” Mahogany Rock Tour snare; and a 14” x 5.5” Mapex maple snare drum. Finding parts on ebay, adding new wraps from Jammin’ Sam in Arizona, and new Evans drum heads have breathed new life into these aged beauties. Being a fan of drummer Billy Cobham, I always dreamt of owning one of his Yamaha Signature snare drums, however they are now discontinued and the $1000 price tag for this collector’s item now seemed a bit much. Having previously built all of these snare drums, I wondered; Could I actually make my own Cobham signature snare from scratch? To quote the Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks, “I th...

Friday, December 8th at San Francisco’s Warfield Theater, saw the penultimate performance of the legendary jazz guitarist John McLaughlin. Following his final show in Los Angeles the next night, McLaughlin officially retired from all live performances in America, ending this tour with his stellar 4th Dimension band. It was a bittersweet show indeed, however McLaughlin didn’t disappoint his fans, closing out his career with an incendiary outing of music both old and new alongside bassist Etienne Mbappe, keyboardist/drummer Gary Husband and drummer percussionist Ranjit Barot. Earlier in the show, McLaughlin recalled his 1981 performance at the theater with the late guitarist Paco De Lucia, Al DiMeola, and their memorable live album “Friday Night in San Francisco”, described by jazz author and critic Walter Kolosky as “a musical event that could be compared to the Benny Goodman Band’s performance at Carnegie Hall in 1938; And may be considered the most influential of all live acoustic ...

When it comes to open handed drumming mastery, Rayford Griffin is among the very best I have ever seen. Proponents of that "left-handed" technique include the legendary drummers Lenny White, Simon Phillips and of course, Billy Cobham. I was taught to play open handed by the great Paul Sears after seeing the Mahavishnu Orchestra with Cobham. I immediately knew that I wanted to learn how to play drums like that. Last June, I was able to catch violinist Jean-Luc Ponty's recent "The Atlantic Years Tour", reuniting him with guitarist Jamie Glaser, keyboardist Wally Minko, bassist Baron Browne and of course Rayford Griffin. A few months earlier I saw this line-up in support of the "Anderson-Ponty Band", featuring the founding member and lead vocalist of Yes, Jon Anderson. As much as I enjoyed it, I longed to see the Ponty group performing their all-instrumental material. This most recent tour didn't disappoint. For this tour, Griffin added an addition...

My 10 piece, Simmons SDS 9 electronic drum kit was actually inspired by drummer Bill Bruford's Simmons SDS 7 kit, and the music of his 1987 groups; Earthworks, David Torn's Cloud About Mercury and Kazumi Watanabe. Following his forward thinking and Rototom driven solo group, Bruford burst back onto the scene with the Simmons electronic drums in 1981 with the reincarnated King Crimson, using the brand new Simmons SDS 5 kit and pads. After the success of that tour, Bruford would receive the new SDS 7 kit, and put them to good use during subsequent tours with King Crimson and others, before moving on to the ill-fated Simmons SDX. I was fortunate to see Bruford's original Earthworks group, featuring Iain Ballamy, Django Bates and Mick Hutton at least 4 times; in Boston, two shows in NYC and in Washington DC. Seeing me outside of D.C.'s Bayou nightclub, and wearing a new Earthworks t-shirt; (I got it from one of Robert Fripp's guitar students-turned drum tech), Brufo...