Original Album Series

The players on these albums stretch jazz and combine amazing virtuosity. Hearing Tommy Bolan's solo on Stratus from Spectrum alone makes this collection worth the money. But getting Ron Carter, Jan Hammer and countless other "greats" on these albums will remind us all of what Bitches Brew and Mahavishnu Orchestra did for the early '70s and jazz.

Excellent box set good price and service

This budget CD set repackages Billy Cobham’s first five solo releases between 1973 and 1975 – ‘Spectrum’ (1973), ‘Crosswinds’ (1974), ‘Total Eclipse’ (1974), ‘Shabazz’ (1974) and ‘A Funky Thide of Sings’ (1975). The slipcase that houses the five CD’s is flimsy; however, the individual CD sleeves are somewhat sturdier. The “Original Album Classics” box set slipcases are far superior to the “Original Album Series” box sets.I own ‘Spectrum’ and ‘Crosswinds’ on vinyl and I have to admit that these two CDs included in the box set, although similar, are not exact vinyl replicas of the original artwork. In addition, the label artwork included on each CD is simplistic in design and bares no similarity to the original Atlantic Records logo. The box set is uninformative and contains no bonus tracks, booklet, liner notes or pictures.As far as the sound quality, each CD sounds superb. It may be helpful to note that the word on the street is that if a re-mastered version exists or has been released or reissued by an artist it is likely to be included in the Original Album Series box sets.As for the music, Billy is a phenomenal drummer and skilled composer, and this five-CD collection offers exciting jazz improvisation with the combined forces of funk and rock. Guest musicians such as Tommy Bolin, Jan Hammer, John Abercrombie, John Scofield, and the Brecker Brothers only add to the excitement and proficiency of each performance. This is high-quality fusion at its best.Overall, this modest box set contains solid performances at an affordable price and is an ideal quick-and-easy discography builder for new fans or collectors with gaps in their collection.

Doubtful that too many people are coming to this release as Cobham novices. Therefore, for most, the big question might relate to the sound quality and if any re-mastering has been done, or if any extras are included. Due to another review I optimistically thought that some of this might be true, and that these discs would represent an improvement over the older copies of these releases already available on cd. They don't.The sound is identical, and possibly inferior, to the versions of these albums on Wounded Bird and Atlantic. There are also no extra or bonus tracks. The packaging is as basic as it comes. No personnel or recording info. No booklet with liner notes or career overview. Just the discs in basic and flimsy versions of the original album covers. Compared to this, boxes like the Weather Report or Brecker Brothers sets are vastly superior in just about all of the ways someone looking for a better version of an older disc would be happy about.Having said all of this, the music is good, and Billy did some nice things in the 70's. If you have little or none of it on cd, and can't find the Wounded Bird discs, here's a cheap way to get his first 5 post-Mahavishnu albums. You'll be scratching your head about who the bassist is, when the recording was made, or if Billy wrote his own compositions (he did). They could've done a much better job with this, and I've learned an important lesson that will make me stay away from any of the other Original Album Series releases.

The value of this purchase.

Bought Stratus way back when then got into other music genres (Celtic, electronic, and more). Then came across Billy on a YouTube video and knew I had to buy this collection. It is so worth it.

Great song writing I was not only impressed with Billy’s playing of his drums and percussion but of his songwriting his compositions varied greatly and weren’t just drum solos while there were some solos here an there there were some beautiful songs and some intense songs as well scattered across these five CDs it’s a tremendous value and they all sound great

BUT... one of my cds did not play. weird formatting. And I have a quality CD player, so I was shocked. and I tried it on another CD player, still no dice. So, I returned.That being said, this is 90s hip hop sample heaven (e.g., 93 till infinity).

Perfetto per regalo Top Spedizione amazon

Ho comprato questo box per avere in cd Crosswind, che avevo già in vinile. Soldi sprecati: il vinile si sente molto meglio. Di Spectrum avevo già il remaster della Atlantic. Credevo che quello del box avesse quantomeno la stessa qualità. Sbagliato: il remaster Atlantic si sente molto meglio. Total eclipse invece ha la stessa qualità in entrambe le edizioni. Degli altri 2 album invece non ho termini di paragone, ma suppongo che la storia non cambi.

Qui non ti sbagli

FIVE (yes 5 ) top, top Billy Cobham albums from his post (& possibly during) Mahavishnu Ork period, early seventies onwards.The first album, Spectrum, has been sampled more times than its humanly possible to count. at least.great selection, great value. RESULT !!!

Il MAESTRO della batteria