Billy Cobham may be [78], but the jazz-fusion drummer who kept mind-boggling time for Mahavishnu Orchestra and Miles Davis during the latter’s most turbulent period of innovation (circa Bitches Brew, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and Get Up with It) is still going strong. Cobham’s Crosswinds Project focuses on the 1974 LP Crosswinds, a much mellower record than his phenomenal solo debut, Spectrum; for example, the Souls of Mischief sampled the ultra-chill “Heather” for their classic “93 ’Til Infinity.” But “The Pleasant Pheasant” rolls out action-packed, Latinate funk (which Eric B. & Rakim sampled for “Juice [Know the Ledge]”), and much of the album occupies a rarefied space where virtuosity intersects with dramatic dynamics and sophisticated emotion. by Dave Segal