Was grooving to a 2002 reissue of the titanic groovefest Power of Soul tonight, and got to thinking about that groover Idris Muhammad - a funk and jazz drummer of the first order, born in New Orleans as Leo Morris.
He started out, of course, playing in soul bands, and some great ones - Larry Williams, the Impressions, Jerry Butler. Played on "People Get Ready," and with a group called the Hawkettes, which featured his neighbor Art Neville on piano.
Was actually playing in the musical Hair, I believe, when he got a gig as a member of the house band in the early 1970s for Prestige, the famous jazz label.
He's worked with everybody in the soul, bop, and groove end of things. Gene Ammons, Sonny Stitt, Grant Green, Lonnie Smith, the hard-bopping Johnny Griffin and Pharaoh Sanders, a former bandmate with John Coltrane. He was also a longtime drummer for bebop pioneer Lou Donaldson. Idris was still working with Sanders on occasion very late in his career.
But, there's more. He backed Grover Washington Jr., David Sanborn, Randy Brecker, John Scofield and Eric Alexander - and returned to New Orleans as a part-time resident (he lives in Austria) where Muhammad joined Donald Harrison Jr.'s Mardi Gras Indian tribe, Congo Nation.
Predictably, he was remade as a leading light of the 1990s "acid jazz" movement. Many think his best music in this vein can be found on two CTI albums, House of the Rising Sun and (of course) Power of Soul.
Ah, yes the 'Power of Soul.' Indeed. There's none of the overt self-indulgence of so-called "fusion" records of the day. This thing plays today as well as it did back then. (By the way, Bob James - who would become a leader in the pop movement that followed - was the arranger.)
Article comments
1 - Donald Harrison
This blogger falsely states that Donald Harrison was a side man to Wynton Marsalis. Please correct this huge error. I have never ever played in a band led by him because I don't like his music or what he represents. I think he has the right to do what he wants but I don't want any part of it.
2 - Nick Deriso
This was actually written some time ago.
Harrison, of course, is a former student under Ellis, a sessions player alongside Delfeayo, replaced Branford (with whom he had roomed while studying at Berklee) in one of the final incarnations of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers -- and played with both Delfeayo and Ellis on an Irvin Mayfield record that's sitting on top of my CD player right now ... but nowhere do I find in my own brain where I got Wynton Marsalis' name instead.
I apologize for the error.
3 - Pico
What don't you like about Wynton's music and what he represents? Just curious, since you brought it up.
4 - Eric Olsen
fixed, thanks and sorry
5 - Dale
The disco song you mention is NOT on Power of Soul - just four cuts:
Power of Soul
Piece of Mind
The Saddest Thing
Loran's Dance (written by Grover Washington Jr.)
This recording in continuous rotation in my cars, and is one of my desert island must-haves.
6 - Donald Harrison
I don't like that he thanks he has the right to be a spokesperson for people that do not want him speaking for them. Also I studied with Ellis but I do not use anything he taught me. I am the exact opposite of the Marsalis family and Terence Blanchard because I came from participating the real culture of New Orleans. We do not belong together because the feeling of what they do is not compatible with the essence of my concept. I wish them the best as long as we don't have to play together as to play with them is the ultimate pain my soul.