Brazil Gives Cobham New Beat and Outlook : Music: The drummer, who plays the Coach House on Tuesday, found inspiration for new album while doing UNICEF project.

When Billy Cobham takes the stage at the Coach House Tuesday with Stanley Clarke, Larry Carlton, Brian Simpson and Najee in the Jazz Explosion Superband, his mind surely will be on his performance, but his heart well may be in Santos, Brazil, with Ellison, Edison and Washington.

One of the more influential musicians of his generation, the 50-year-old drummer spent five months of last year working in the Brazilian town for a UNICEF-sponsored project designed to give homeless children basic care and hope for a future. As if in return, he found the inspiration for his new Evidence-label release “The Traveler,” a Brazilian-flavored outing that reflects his experiences working with the youngsters.

“The kids all had single nicknames, strangely enough, in English,” he said last week on the phone from New York between Superband concerts. “Ellison was the biggest, a very cynical 18-year old, though he still wasn’t a total lost cause. Edison really wanted to go to school and make something of himself. But it was Washington who really stirred up the emotion in me.

“The first time I met him he was smoking this giant spliff. At 11, he was already older than most of us in terms of experience. There was talk that he may have committed murder. He’d really been around. And he loved rap.”

Cobham got involved with the fledgling program after, as he puts it, “I opened my big mouth” during a dinner party in Rome that included some Europeans with ties to UNICEF.

“In the course of conversation about helping children, I jumped in and said what you people ought to do is give these kids some direction, put some artist in there with the kids and give them a positive direction to emulate. That was November of ’92. Later, they called to see if I wanted to get involved. By January, I was in Brazil.”

He had direct contact with about a dozen children ranging in age from 6 to 18. Besides providing food and medical care, the program sought to give them skills to grow on.

“Without any knowledge of Portuguese, I found it was uncannily easy to use music as a point of interest in communication,” Cobham said. “We tried to bring in musicians from the surrounding areas who they knew, to bring an air of respectability to the program. We were actually able to form a concert group, and put on one concert at the town hall that was very successful.”

In addition to performing, Cobham taught the children a craft that could provide a foundation for their lives: how to repair instruments.

“These kids are always concentrating on how they’re going to survive the next 30 seconds,” he said. “How would it be if they had some skills, could earn some money? It would open up a whole wide world for them.”

Still, he thinks the most valuable aspect of the program was the chance it gave the children to express themselves. “Washington took over the mike (at the concert) and just spilled his guts to the kind of rhythm that Arrested Development might play. He rapped just about what had happened to him the night before. But it was poetry and people were blown away.”

During those five months, Cobham found himself coming up with material for “The Traveler.” “I’d say 90% of the tunes were written in Brazil. They would come into my head while I was working and I’d sing them into a dictation machine. Later, I sat down at the piano and put it all together. I’ll always be indebted to the people of Santos for that inspiration.”

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The album’s title is apt for someone born in Panama, raised in New York and living now in Switzerland. Cobham’s pinpoint, well-muscled sound was at the forefront of a new musical direction that was spawned in the late ‘60s and that resulted in the genre now loosely defined as “fusion.”

After a stint with jazz-funk composer-pianist Horace Silver, Cobham joined the ground-breaking though short-lived crossover band Dreams in 1969. He played on Miles Davis’ landmark “Bitches Brew” and went on to record a number of other experimental electric sessions with the revered innovator.

But it was his work with John McLaughlin’s Mahvishnu Orchestra that thrust him into the spotlight. His ambitious, split-hair timekeeping, matched against guitarist McLaughlin’s machine-gun attack, won over a generation of listeners looking for more depth and musical proficiency than was being offered by that day’s crop of rockers.

Cobham went on to record a number of his own albums, beginning with the critically acclaimed “Spectrum” in 1973 (recently re-released on CD). He says he is both flattered and chagrined to hear samples from “Spectrum” being used on other musicians’ recordings, most notably on bassist Bill Laswell’s latest, on which an entire number is built from a Cobham song called “Red Barron.”

“It’s a wonderful piece,” Cobham said, “but I don’t like the fact that I wasn’t given credit or acknowledgment, let alone payment. It’s not fair. They owe me an explanation.”

He finds the current state of the fusion movement to be more focused than the expansive explorations of 20 years ago. “The musical direction has been narrowed; only small portions (from the early days) are being used and amplified.

“It’s because of the way many young musicians view the music and what they’re putting together. They don’t need that complicated Miles alternative or the thing that Mahvishnu had. They need to bring it right into your face, like with the rap thing.”

The Jazz Explosion Superband is an ensemble of fellow fusion pioneers who have found common ground playing each other’s music. Their tour last year resulted in the Epic release “Live At the Greek” which includes Cobham’s seriously percussive “Stratus” from “Spectrum.”

Cobham said that despite some initial ego problems, the group has come together very well. He has only polite words for his fellow members:

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On Stanley Clarke: “We’re really getting to know each other, finally, after thinking we already did. This is a very good experience for us, to perform together over an extended period of time (last year), go away, and then come back together again. Our relationship started out a little lumpy and stiff because we played in different environments, but we really understand each other now.”

On Larry Carlton: “I’ve only known Larry since 1992 but I’ve always admired his work. He’s very congenial, very easygoing and a wonderful guitarist.”

On Najee: “As far as I’m concerned, he’s the best-kept secret in woodwinds. He doesn’t just play tenor and alto but serious soprano and flute too. Every night with him is a joy.”

And on Brian Simpson, who has replaced Deron Johnson on keyboards: “He’s really walked into a difficult situation. He came in a day and a half before the gig (to audition) and just knocked our socks off. He’s a very supportive keyboard player.”

But, Cobham said, the children of Santos are always in the back of his mind. His return to Brazil hinges on the outcome of this year’s Brazilian presidential election and approval of UNICEF funding. “I’m waiting for permission. But the first chance I have, I’ll be there. I don’t want to force myself; I have nothing politically to prove. But I do have a lot to gain.”

* The Jazz Explosion Superband with Billy Cobham, Stanley Clarke, Larry Carlton, Brian Simpson and Najee plays Tuesday at 7 and 9:30 p.m. at the Coach House, 33157 Camino Capistrano, San Juan Capistrano. $25. (714) 496-8930.