Billy Cobham and Asere - De Cuba y De Panama
Release Date: 23rd June 2008

Recorded last year at Real World Studios De Cuba y De Panama is the debut collaborative album from legendary drummer Billy Cobham and Cuban band Asere. It promises to be the sound of summer 2008….

Billy Cobham & Asere will be touring the UK in October

When jazz drumming icon - and musical legend - Billy Cobham first teamed up with the innovative and stylish young Cuban group Asere at WOMAD 2002, noone could quite have anticipated where their union would end up. Six years on, the result is a stunning collaborative debut album De Cuba y De Panama, an album which marks a journey into the making of musical history. As the legendary drummer reconnects with his Latin roots, exploring and rediscovering his natural musical and cultural heritage, the warmth of the relationship that has developed between these two powerhouses radiates loud and clear through the music.

Billy Cobham is a hugely influential musician, who has put the throb and the pulse into everything from funk to soul to jazz and has played with a list of musicians that reads like a who’s who of modern music – Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, John McLaughlin and Herbie Hancock to name but a few. He has also been sampled by everyone from Massive Attack to hip hop bands such as NWA.

Groundbreaking and contemporary, Asere recreate the passion and feeling of the music they heard around them growing up in Havana. Their music comes from the heart, and they bring the full Cuban experience to the stage with inventive song writing, warmth and spontaneity. Together with Billy they take the subtleties and complexities of Afro-Cuban rhythms to breathtaking new places.

Cobham and Asere together explore soul, jazz and funk influences all mixed up with a kicking Latin vibe. Asere offer an unmistakably Cuban perspective with a profound, acoustic sound. Underpinned by Billy’s incredible drumming, this funky, soulful, and deeply moving album is totally danceable with a polished production and an innovative style.