Billy Cobham

In 2001, Guy Barker joined Billy Cobham's quintet, recorded 'The Art of Five,' and toured. As Guy shifted to composing, Billy asked him to arrange music for a big band. For these concerts Billy's quartet and Guy's big band feature soloists, including saxophonist Chris Hunter, who first played with Guy at Ronnie's in 1980 before moving to New York and joining the Gil Evans band. With his matchless, dazzling, ambidextrous skills Billy Cobham has applied the same insistent fervour to his long list of monumental achievements. He’s an accomplished composer and record producer. It is a rarely known fact that he was at the forefront of the electronic music industry and its development through Jazz. He was one of the first percussionists, along with Max Roach and Tony Williams to utilize the Electronic Drum Controller made in 1968 by the Meazzi Drum Company in Milano, Italy, while on concert tour with Horace Silver in Europe. He is one of the few percussionists, specialising in the jazz drum set to lead his own band. The award winning Cobham has custom designed trend setting acoustic and electronic drum sets and has endorsed products that he created and refined. Guy Barker is a kaleidoscope of talent: stellar jazz soloist and sideman, bandleader, radio presenter, arranger and composer. He has worked in theatre and movies, including the late Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr. Ripley. In the instrumental jazz field, he has partnered with Gil Evans, Ornette Coleman, Quincy Jones, Wynton Marsalis, Nat Adderley, Hermeto Pascal, Joe Henderson, Carla Bley, John Dankworth, Stan Tracey, Billy Cobham and many others. He has toured with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Lena Horne, Liza Minnelli, Mel Tormé, Paloma Faith and Sting. His album The Amadeus Project featured dZf, a cheeky Runyonesque re-working of The Magic Flute. As Associate Composer for the BBC Concert Orchestra (BBCCO) he composed That Obscure Hurt, a 90-minute piece for 75 musicians, featuring the great American singer Kurt Elling and actress Janie Dee. Recently, for a co-commission with the RTE (he is its Associate Artist) and the BBC Concert Orchestras, Guy created bravura new arrangements of Charles Mingus's music. Guy’s latest extended piece for big band, narrator and singers, Inferno 67, debuted in 2024 at Ronnie Scott’s. Thanks to his helming of Jazz Voice - the annual opening gala of the London Jazz Festival - for the past 16 years, Guy has developed a special affinity with vocalists.