Biography
As one of the most frequently sampled percussionists in modern music, New Orleans native Idris Muhammad fused syncopated rhythms, blues-inflected swing, and signature funky breaks with the city’s second-line and parade traditions. Across nearly 500 sessions spanning countless styles, his professional path opened in 1954 when, at fifteen, he appeared on Art Neville and the Hawketts’ “Mardi Gras Mambo”; two years later he supported Fats Domino on “Blueberry Hill.” Throughout his late teens and early twenties he traveled with Sam Cooke and with Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions. Long-term associations linked him to Lou Donaldson, Pharoah Sanders, and Ahmad Jamal, while additional work connected him to Roberta Flack, Grover Washington, Jr., Bob James, Hank Crawford, Sonny Stitt, and Joe Lovano, among many others. As a leader he issued several influential and widely sampled albums in the mid-1970s—Power of Soul, universally viewed as a jazz-funk landmark, House of the Rising Sun, and Turn This Mutha Out. During the 1980s and 1990s he toured as a sideman alongside John Hicks, Sanders, Nathan Davis, and Washington, Jr. His last recording under his own name was the 2004 Sunnyside release The Champs, shared with organist Joey DeFrancesco and guitarist Ximo Tebar. Muhammad died in 2014.
Born Leo Morris in New Orleans’ 13th Ward, he grew up with four siblings who all played drums. In his autobiography Inside the Music he credited the clanging, hissing, and bumping sounds of the machinery at Buddy’s Cleaners and Pressing Shop next door, rather than family example alone, for shaping his distinctive syncopation. Entirely self-taught beyond what his brothers and the neighboring shop supplied, Muhammad benefited from the family’s friendship with the Nevilles; that connection secured his first professional engagement at fifteen, sitting in with Art Neville and the Hawketts on “Mardi Gras Mambo.” He performed with numerous local players and frequented Cosimo Matassa’s studio, observing Professor Longhair, Ernie K. Doe, and others. At seventeen he participated in the Fats Domino session that produced “Blueberry Hill.”
He joined Sam Cooke’s touring band at eighteen, then moved to Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions. In 1960, still twenty-one, he drummed behind New Orleans R&B vocalist Joe Jones on the hit “You Talk Too Much.” That same year he appeared on Sonny Forriest & His Orchestra’s Tuff Pickin’ for Decca; also in 1966 he embraced Islam and adopted the name Idris Muhammad, although Blue Note and Cadet continued listing his birth name on some credits. A 1966 road engagement with saxophonist Lou Donaldson led to his recording debut on the 1967 Cadet album Blowing in the Wind; the partnership lasted until 1973 and yielded Alligator Boogaloo, Mr. Shing-A-Ling, Midnight Creeper, and Everything I Play Is Funky.
In 1968 Muhammad met Galt MacDermot and secured the drum chair for the original Broadway run of Hair, later recording with MacDermot’s studio ensembles. The following year found his name on significant dates by Donald Byrd (Fancy Free), Paul Desmond (Summertime), George Benson (Tell It Like It Is, The Other Side of Abbey Road), Grant Green (Carryin’ On), Charles Earland (Black Talk!), and Pharoah Sanders (Jewels of Thought).
Signing with Prestige in 1970 as house drummer, Muhammad contributed to key sessions by Rusty Bryant and Gene Ammons while continuing work with Blue Note artists such as Horace Silver. His first leader date, Black Rhythm Revolution!, appeared in 1971 with pianist Harold Mabern and Melvin Sparks; Peace and Rhythm, featuring Ron Carter, followed months later. During those two years he participated in more than three dozen recordings, including his own and now-classic outings by Walter Bishop, Jr. (Coral Keys), Grover Washington, Jr. (Inner City Blues, Soul Box), Rusty Bryant (Fire Eater), and Bobbi Humphrey (Flute In).
Muhammad joined Kudu in 1973 and released Power of Soul, his defining and frequently sampled jazz-funk statement. The four extended tracks featured Bob James’s arrangements along with Randy Brecker, Ralph MacDonald, Joe Beck, and Grover Washington, Jr.; the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique famously opens with a long excerpt from the album’s closing track, “Loran’s Dance.” Although the project was jazz-oriented, Muhammad insisted in one interview that he considered himself a funk drummer. That year he also took part in the bicoastal sessions for Luiz Bonfá’s Jacaranda, arranged by Deodato and widely regarded as a landmark 1970s fusion recording; fellow participants included Airto, Stanley Clarke, Ray Barretto, John Tropea, and Brecker.
Critical response to Power of Soul expanded his studio workload. He appeared on Roberta Flack’s signature single “Killing Me Softly” and its parent album, as well as dates led by Nat Adderley, Stanley Turrentine, Morgana King, Eric Gale, Merry Clayton, and James. House of the Rising Sun followed in 1975; arranged by David Matthews and Tom Harrell and produced by Creed Taylor, the set presented Muhammad’s integrated musical perspective through a funk treatment of the title track, Ashford & Simpson’s “Hard to Face the Music,” an adaptation of Chopin’s Prelude No. 4 titled “Theme for New York City,” the Neville Brothers’ “Hey Pocky A-Way,” Ary Barroso’s “Baia,” and the modal funk piece “Sudan,” co-written with Harrell. Saxophonists David Sanborn, Bob Berg, and Ronnie Cuber, trumpeter Harrell, bassist Will Lee, and guitarists Gale and Beck participated; the album reached number 51 on the R&B chart.
Muhammad remained with Flack for Feel Like Makin’ Love and extended his reach to Gene McDaniels and Dexter Wansel. Turn This Mutha Out, issued in 1977, blended jazz-funk and disco and later became a favorite among DJs, rappers, and producers; it entered the Top 200 and charted for nineteen weeks. Touring opportunities as a leader were limited while he balanced recording and live work with Houston Person, David “Fathead” Newman, and Hilton Ruiz.
Boogie to the Top, his final Kudu album, continued the disco-jazz direction in 1978 with largely the same personnel and peaked at number 45 on the R&B Albums chart; three tracks also reached the Top 40 on the Dance Club chart. That year Bob James recruited him for the multi-platinum Touchdown, whose chart-topping single “Angela” served as the theme for the television series Taxi. Muhammad closed the decade with Foxhuntin’ for Fantasy and contributed to James’s Lucky Seven and Mongo Santamaria’s Red Hot.
Make It Count, released on Fantasy in 1980, pursued further disco and funk yet made little commercial impact. The same year he returned to straight-ahead jazz with the Theresa quartet date Kabsha, featuring Sanders, George Coleman, and Ray Drummond—an opportunity that arose after Muhammad’s earlier work on Sanders’s Journey to the One impressed the label. The renewed partnership produced further Sanders albums throughout the decade: Live, Heart Is a Melody, Shukuru, and Africa. Muhammad remained prolific, recording dozens of sessions and performing live with John Hicks, Johnny Griffin, the Fania All-Stars, Johnny Lytle, Steve Turre, Doc Cheatham, Tony Coe, and Benny Bailey while maintaining regular studio ties to Bob James and Grover Washington, Jr.
My Turn, a 1990 jazz-funk release on Germany’s Lipstick label, was recorded at Minot Studio in White Plains, New York, with guitarist Hiram Bullock, Brecker, James, Washington, Jr., and vocalist Sakinah Muhammad, then the drummer’s wife. He continued working with Hicks’s trio in both studio and concert settings and joined Randy Weston’s band for the “Portraits” trilogy—Portraits of Thelonious Monk, Portraits of Duke Ellington, and Self Portraits: The Last Day—as well as The Spirits of Our Ancestors and Africa.
Joining Ahmad Jamal’s trio in 1995, Muhammad appeared on all three volumes of The Essence and sustained the collaboration through 2008. Remaining a sought-after session player, he contributed to albums by John Scofield, David Murray, Ernest Ranglin, and Sonny Rollins. His 1998 Cannonball Records leader date Right Now featured Gary Bartz, Coleman, Curtis Lundy, and Joe Lovano.
Muhammad sustained his work with Jamal into the new century and participated in Lovano’s Flights of Fancy, Stefon Harris and Jacky Terrasson’s Kindred, Bobby Broom’s Modern Man, and Rodney Jones’s Soul Manifesto. The 2004 Sunnyside trio recording The Champs with Tebar and DeFrancesco marked his final leader session.
Later Jamal projects, including After Fajr, earned further praise, and he performed in Junior Mance’s trio on Soul Eyes. In 2007 he recorded Sketchy with organist Wil Blades and guitarist Will Bernard; the following year he joined bassist Cameron Brown in trombonist Raul De Souza’s Soul & Creation band and appeared on Jamal’s It’s Magic, his last Jamal recording. Muhammad also took an acting role in Leigh Richert’s 2008 comedy My Brother’s Keeper and appeared as himself in Mike Redman’s 2012 documentary Sample: Not for Sale. After extended kidney dialysis, he died at his New Orleans home in July 2014.
Born Leo Morris in New Orleans’ 13th Ward, he grew up with four siblings who all played drums. In his autobiography Inside the Music he credited the clanging, hissing, and bumping sounds of the machinery at Buddy’s Cleaners and Pressing Shop next door, rather than family example alone, for shaping his distinctive syncopation. Entirely self-taught beyond what his brothers and the neighboring shop supplied, Muhammad benefited from the family’s friendship with the Nevilles; that connection secured his first professional engagement at fifteen, sitting in with Art Neville and the Hawketts on “Mardi Gras Mambo.” He performed with numerous local players and frequented Cosimo Matassa’s studio, observing Professor Longhair, Ernie K. Doe, and others. At seventeen he participated in the Fats Domino session that produced “Blueberry Hill.”
He joined Sam Cooke’s touring band at eighteen, then moved to Curtis Mayfield & the Impressions. In 1960, still twenty-one, he drummed behind New Orleans R&B vocalist Joe Jones on the hit “You Talk Too Much.” That same year he appeared on Sonny Forriest & His Orchestra’s Tuff Pickin’ for Decca; also in 1966 he embraced Islam and adopted the name Idris Muhammad, although Blue Note and Cadet continued listing his birth name on some credits. A 1966 road engagement with saxophonist Lou Donaldson led to his recording debut on the 1967 Cadet album Blowing in the Wind; the partnership lasted until 1973 and yielded Alligator Boogaloo, Mr. Shing-A-Ling, Midnight Creeper, and Everything I Play Is Funky.
In 1968 Muhammad met Galt MacDermot and secured the drum chair for the original Broadway run of Hair, later recording with MacDermot’s studio ensembles. The following year found his name on significant dates by Donald Byrd (Fancy Free), Paul Desmond (Summertime), George Benson (Tell It Like It Is, The Other Side of Abbey Road), Grant Green (Carryin’ On), Charles Earland (Black Talk!), and Pharoah Sanders (Jewels of Thought).
Signing with Prestige in 1970 as house drummer, Muhammad contributed to key sessions by Rusty Bryant and Gene Ammons while continuing work with Blue Note artists such as Horace Silver. His first leader date, Black Rhythm Revolution!, appeared in 1971 with pianist Harold Mabern and Melvin Sparks; Peace and Rhythm, featuring Ron Carter, followed months later. During those two years he participated in more than three dozen recordings, including his own and now-classic outings by Walter Bishop, Jr. (Coral Keys), Grover Washington, Jr. (Inner City Blues, Soul Box), Rusty Bryant (Fire Eater), and Bobbi Humphrey (Flute In).
Muhammad joined Kudu in 1973 and released Power of Soul, his defining and frequently sampled jazz-funk statement. The four extended tracks featured Bob James’s arrangements along with Randy Brecker, Ralph MacDonald, Joe Beck, and Grover Washington, Jr.; the Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique famously opens with a long excerpt from the album’s closing track, “Loran’s Dance.” Although the project was jazz-oriented, Muhammad insisted in one interview that he considered himself a funk drummer. That year he also took part in the bicoastal sessions for Luiz Bonfá’s Jacaranda, arranged by Deodato and widely regarded as a landmark 1970s fusion recording; fellow participants included Airto, Stanley Clarke, Ray Barretto, John Tropea, and Brecker.
Critical response to Power of Soul expanded his studio workload. He appeared on Roberta Flack’s signature single “Killing Me Softly” and its parent album, as well as dates led by Nat Adderley, Stanley Turrentine, Morgana King, Eric Gale, Merry Clayton, and James. House of the Rising Sun followed in 1975; arranged by David Matthews and Tom Harrell and produced by Creed Taylor, the set presented Muhammad’s integrated musical perspective through a funk treatment of the title track, Ashford & Simpson’s “Hard to Face the Music,” an adaptation of Chopin’s Prelude No. 4 titled “Theme for New York City,” the Neville Brothers’ “Hey Pocky A-Way,” Ary Barroso’s “Baia,” and the modal funk piece “Sudan,” co-written with Harrell. Saxophonists David Sanborn, Bob Berg, and Ronnie Cuber, trumpeter Harrell, bassist Will Lee, and guitarists Gale and Beck participated; the album reached number 51 on the R&B chart.
Muhammad remained with Flack for Feel Like Makin’ Love and extended his reach to Gene McDaniels and Dexter Wansel. Turn This Mutha Out, issued in 1977, blended jazz-funk and disco and later became a favorite among DJs, rappers, and producers; it entered the Top 200 and charted for nineteen weeks. Touring opportunities as a leader were limited while he balanced recording and live work with Houston Person, David “Fathead” Newman, and Hilton Ruiz.
Boogie to the Top, his final Kudu album, continued the disco-jazz direction in 1978 with largely the same personnel and peaked at number 45 on the R&B Albums chart; three tracks also reached the Top 40 on the Dance Club chart. That year Bob James recruited him for the multi-platinum Touchdown, whose chart-topping single “Angela” served as the theme for the television series Taxi. Muhammad closed the decade with Foxhuntin’ for Fantasy and contributed to James’s Lucky Seven and Mongo Santamaria’s Red Hot.
Make It Count, released on Fantasy in 1980, pursued further disco and funk yet made little commercial impact. The same year he returned to straight-ahead jazz with the Theresa quartet date Kabsha, featuring Sanders, George Coleman, and Ray Drummond—an opportunity that arose after Muhammad’s earlier work on Sanders’s Journey to the One impressed the label. The renewed partnership produced further Sanders albums throughout the decade: Live, Heart Is a Melody, Shukuru, and Africa. Muhammad remained prolific, recording dozens of sessions and performing live with John Hicks, Johnny Griffin, the Fania All-Stars, Johnny Lytle, Steve Turre, Doc Cheatham, Tony Coe, and Benny Bailey while maintaining regular studio ties to Bob James and Grover Washington, Jr.
My Turn, a 1990 jazz-funk release on Germany’s Lipstick label, was recorded at Minot Studio in White Plains, New York, with guitarist Hiram Bullock, Brecker, James, Washington, Jr., and vocalist Sakinah Muhammad, then the drummer’s wife. He continued working with Hicks’s trio in both studio and concert settings and joined Randy Weston’s band for the “Portraits” trilogy—Portraits of Thelonious Monk, Portraits of Duke Ellington, and Self Portraits: The Last Day—as well as The Spirits of Our Ancestors and Africa.
Joining Ahmad Jamal’s trio in 1995, Muhammad appeared on all three volumes of The Essence and sustained the collaboration through 2008. Remaining a sought-after session player, he contributed to albums by John Scofield, David Murray, Ernest Ranglin, and Sonny Rollins. His 1998 Cannonball Records leader date Right Now featured Gary Bartz, Coleman, Curtis Lundy, and Joe Lovano.
Muhammad sustained his work with Jamal into the new century and participated in Lovano’s Flights of Fancy, Stefon Harris and Jacky Terrasson’s Kindred, Bobby Broom’s Modern Man, and Rodney Jones’s Soul Manifesto. The 2004 Sunnyside trio recording The Champs with Tebar and DeFrancesco marked his final leader session.
Later Jamal projects, including After Fajr, earned further praise, and he performed in Junior Mance’s trio on Soul Eyes. In 2007 he recorded Sketchy with organist Wil Blades and guitarist Will Bernard; the following year he joined bassist Cameron Brown in trombonist Raul De Souza’s Soul & Creation band and appeared on Jamal’s It’s Magic, his last Jamal recording. Muhammad also took an acting role in Leigh Richert’s 2008 comedy My Brother’s Keeper and appeared as himself in Mike Redman’s 2012 documentary Sample: Not for Sale. After extended kidney dialysis, he died at his New Orleans home in July 2014.
Albums
Solid!
1998
You Ain't No Friend Of Mine!
1978
Turn This Mutha Out
1977
House of the Rising Sun
1976
Power Of Soul
1974
Peace And Rhythm
1971
Black Rhythm Revolution!
1971
Singles
Live
