After a couple of months in hibernation, we’re back! In our last post, Dan chose Freddie Hubbard’s fusion classic ‘Red Clay’, released on CTI Records in 1970. A year after this album was released, CTI founded Kudu Records, a sub-label intended to showcase artists with a more commercial appeal to their CTI counterparts. Consisting of mainly black musicians, Kudu’s releases were often rooted in the soul jazz sound that was popular at the time. Drummer Idris Muhammad’s defining masterpiece Power Of Soul, released on the label in 1974 is one of the standout albums of the Kudu catalogue.
Born and raised in New Orleans into a family of drummers, it is not surprising that Leo Morris (later known as Idris Muhammad after converting to Islam in the 60s) went on to become a major force in jazz, known for his funky backbeats and tight grooves. According to the man himself, ‘my rhythms are a mixture of the second-line street beats and the way the Indians who danced during Mardi Gras played the tambourine’.
Drumming from an early age, Muhammad cut his teeth playing in the marching bands of New Orleans and went professional at 16. After an early career recording with Fats Domino and touring with Sam Cooke, Muhammad later enjoyed a stint as the house drummer for Prestige in the early 70s and it was on this label Muhammad released his first two albums as leader Peace And Rhythm (1971) and Black Rhythm Revolution! (1971). In addition, Muhammad provided the rhythmic backbone for the late 60s psychedelic broadway musical Hair, influencing the style of fellow funky drummer and prolific session musician Bernard Purdie. Interestingly, according to Muhammad, it was after seeing Hair that Miles Davis changed his group in order to embrace a funkier, rock sound that he consequently explored during his electric period.
Power Of Soul marked Muhammad’s debut for Kudu and continued to build on the funky soul jazz sound of his earlier recordings for Prestige. With all compositions on the album arranged and conducted by Bob James, most famously known for his hip hop sample goldmine ‘Nautilus’ released on CTI the same year, Power Of Soul is a master class in sophisticated jazz funk. Muhammad himself admitted that he considers the album his greatest record: “It’s only four tracks […] but the intensity of the rhythms I’m playing and how settled, and how swinging, and how hard it grooves is what makes it.”
The album opens with its namesake track, ‘Power Of Soul’, a driving and funky cover of this Jimi Hendrix original. Other tracks such as ‘The Saddest Thing’ is a laid back affair, at times sailing dangerously close to smooth jazz but nevertheless manages to remain musically tight without falling into musical cliche. As critic Thom Jurek observes: “This is some easy-moving, yet musically complex jazz. There is great power in these four tracks to make you move or reflect or just tap your foot while nodding “yeah” at your speakers imperceptibly.” The final track on the album ‘Loran’s Dance’, written by saxophonist Grover Washington Jr. and famously sampled by the Beastie Boys on their album Paul’s Boutique, is a funky slow burner of a track full of attitude.
However, it is on the album’s second track ‘Piece Of Mind’ that the band really shine. The track opens with the crystalline tones of Joe Beck’s guitar accompanied by the glistening keys of Bob James on Rhodes before easing into one of Muhammad’s characteristic funky backbeats. Every drum sound that Muhammad plays jumps out the speakers, in part due to his military precision as a drummer but also thanks to the fantastic mixing techniques of legendary Blue Note engineer Rudy Van Gelder. Interestingly, the cymbals Muhammad used on this record were gifted to him by master drummer Art Blakey after his were stolen one night at a gig. Muhammad went on to use these cymbals for the next thirty-two years on all his albums.
After a beautifully rich and expansive solo from Grover Washington Jr. on sax, trumpeter Randy Brecker follows suite with an equally satisfying and engaging musical contribution. However, it is Bob James’ Rhodes solo which really steals the show, improvising nimbly with a light touch whilst all the time remaining supremely funky. It’s no wonder hip hop producers in the late 80s and early 90s gravitated towards his records as prime sample fodder.
In a similar respect to Ahmad Jamal’s album The Awakening, Idris Muhammad’s Power Of Soul is considered a crate digger’s classic and snippets of the album’s four tracks formed the backbone of many great hip hop tracks from the late 80s to the present day. For Muhammad, the beat is ‘the nucleus of the music’ which is no doubt why so many hip hop producers have been attracted to his work. Unlike many musicians from that era, Muhammad embraced hip hop as just ‘another phase of the music’ and held an open-minded and humble perspective on sampling as an art form: “It don’t really belong to me, man […] The gift the Creator has given me, I can’t be selfish with. If I keep it in my pocket, it’s not going to go anyplace.” Muhammad saw himself as a vehicle for music – the music does not belong to the musician, they are merely a medium to deliver the music to listeners.
After Power Of Soul, Muhammad continued to release music on Kudu and embraced the disco grooves that became increasingly popular throughout the 70s. However, with one foot on the dance floor, he kept the other in jazz, featuring on deep 80s jazz releases such as Pharoah Sanders’ Journey To The One (1980) and Africa (1987), later touring regularly with Ahmad Jamal. To this day, Muhammad’s influence lives on in a new generation of jazz musicians with drummers like Yussef Dayes who have managed to capture the essence of Muhammad’s tight and funky style. The musical legacy Idris Muhammad leaves in both jazz and funk is formidable and we’ll no doubt continue to feel the rhythmic ripples of such a legacy for many years to come.
For more music from jazz’s original funky drummer, sample our ‘In The Pocket’ playlist over on Spotify.
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