Classic
Mid-Seventies Mellow Funk
For anyone white or black living inner city life this album is for you.
These songs are mellow and smooth, perfect for a late Saturday afternoon.
Idris is a talented drummer whose whole style is great in my opinion. CTI
can do no wrong.
– Tony Metro
Idris Muhammad: Coming to Grips with His Greatness
"Style? No, I just play, man. I don't really have a style. Just being
able to play music is a style, you know?" says the veteran drummer
master Idris Muhammad in his laid-back and understated style.
Others know better than to
take that self-effacing comment at face value. His style developed into
a unique sound over the years, a New Orleans-based rhythm that has influenced
many other drummers that followed. He's always had a special "something"
and others know it, hiring him repeatedly for settings ranging from the
R&B of Sam Cooke and Fats Domino to the modern groove music of John
Scofield. He tours with Joe Lovano and Ahmad Jamal. He's played behind
singers Betty Carter, Etta Jones and Roberta Flack. Played with jazzmen
as diverse as Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Pharoah Sanders as well as Horace
Silver and Herbie Hancock. His background comes from the funk of Arthur
Neville and Curtis Mayfield. Over the years Idris has made music with
so many legendary and renowned musicians that it's hard to keep track
– he's on 136 albums recorded in Rudy Van Gelder's legendary New
Jersey recording studio alone!
Idris Muhammad, born Leo Morris
in New Orleans in 1939 into a family where his brothers also played the
drums, readily admits he doesn't consider himself a jazz drummer. He's
recorded with a Who's Who list in that genre after "the jazz guys"
found out who he was, how well he played, and how he could bring different
elements to the music. But to Muhammad, he's just a drummer.
This drummer may be under-appreciated
to those outside music – but not those inside. Only in the last
few years, however, has he actually acknowledged his own greatness, finally
ready to say that, yeah, he's pretty damn good. "Because I'm getting
older now and getting kind of sentimental and saying, ‘Did I really
do that? Did I pass that much time?'" he says with a laugh.
You see, Idris Muhammad is
just a flat-out nice guy. He'd rather just play than have people brag
on him – a lesson he learned from Paul Barbarin, a New Orleans drummer
who played with Louis Armstrong, King Oliver and Sidney Bechet. Barbarin
told a very young Leo Morris that the accolades would come one day, but
to let them roll off his back.
Idris is an agreeable fellow,
all right. Talkative, amusing, descriptive, but not demonstrative. Twice
he was awakened from a sound sleep by an inquiry into finding interview
time within his busy schedule. Rather than being irritated, he was cordial
and patient. The second time, rather than postpone, it was: "Let's
do it. Let's see what questions you want to ask, so I can answer them,"
and off he went on an open and enlightening discussion of music and his
career. Idris Muhammad is not full of himself. And unlike many musicians
who feel the need to play right up until the end, Muhammad – an
immeasurably in-demand drummer – wants to step aside soon and "retire,"
satisfied that he has lived a good life; a life of his choosing; a life
that already has its share of accomplishments.
"I would like to stop
traveling and just go fishin' and smoke my Cuban cigars [delightfully
pronounced CIG´-gars in a New Orleans-tinted way] and drink Diet
Coke. I would like to enjoy a little bit of my life, come off of the road.
I've done a lot of great things in my lifetime. And I know I can play.
Some guys never reach their goal of what they're trying to achieve in
life, you know? My life has been quite fruitful," says Muhammad.
"I'm 62 now and I've been on the road 47 years and I'm thinkin' that
I don't really want die out here."
–
R.J. DeLuke
If he does go out, he's sure had
a life that any musician would be proud of.
–
AllAboutJazz.com interview
|
Creed Taylor
Photos by Chuck Stewart |
to hear sound samples.