Drummers
Alphonse Mouzon and
Billy Cobham led almost parallel careers during the 1970s and helped to raise the bar by which all subsequent drummers were to be judged. They were both in legendary fusion bands (
Mouzon in
Weather Report and
Larry Coryell's
Eleventh House and
Cobham in
Dreams and
the Mahavishnu Orchestra), both led their own successful bands, both reinvented jazz-rock drumming, and both released one classic, genre-defining recording.
Cobham's classic was
Spectrum, a recording that is regularly considered as one of the genre's best. This,
Mind Transplant, is
Mouzon's classic recording that is often hailed as "
Spectrum II." The common thread, besides the aggressive drumming, is guitarist
Tommy Bolin. Where
Cobham used
Bolin's aggressive playing as a counterpoint to
Jan Hammer,
Mouzon features the guitarist as the primary attraction. The tunes themselves may not be as memorable as, say, "Red Baron" or "Stratus," but the playing is no less inspired.
Mouzon and
Bolin are a natural fit and push themselves to levels of creativity and skill that few can attain. Raw and powerful, the music herein is what made fusion such a viable musical style. This recording has never been as popular as
Spectrum, but was finally released on CD in 1993 with the addition of the 15-minute jam session "The Real Thing." Easily one of the best fusion recordings of all time. ~ Robert Taylor