Idris Muhammad

New Orleans

Idris Muhammad was born Leo Morris on November 13, 1939 in New Orleans and grew up in the 13th Ward next to a dry cleaner's; he said the steam presser influenced his hi-hat technique. His father was from Pakistan and his mother from France, three brothers were also drummers, and he was almost entirely self-taught. He played percussion in a Mardi Gras parade at nine and began professionally at 14 with The Hawketts, on "Mardi Gras Mambo". Fact and 64 Parishes say that at 16 he played drums on Fats Domino's "Blueberry Hill" in 1956, a date other sources contradict. He said his drumming came from dancing in New Orleans in the street bands underneath the bass drum player.

In 1960 he drummed on Joe Jones's "You Talk Too Much" (number three on the US pop chart) and toured about two years with Sam Cooke, hired after an audition in a New Orleans diner. He worked with Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield in Chicago, where Mayfield gave him a share of the Curtom publishing, then went to New York in the mid-1960s and played with Kenny Dorham, Horace Silver and Betty Carter. In 1966 he played on Lee Dorsey's "Working in a Coal Mine". He joined Lou Donaldson for nearly four years and took the name Idris Muhammad after converting to Islam.

Hair and Kudu

He was the original drummer in the Broadway production of Hair; Encyclopedia.com gives 1968 to 1972, the Percussive Arts Society 1969 to 1973. He said the drum rhythms from Hair belong to him: it's mine, I created it. He was a Prestige house drummer, played 150 or more sessions for Prestige, Blue Note, CTI and others, and Rudy Van Gelder refined his drum sound. He toured four years with Roberta Flack, and his sideman credits include Grant Green, George Benson, Pharoah Sanders's Jewels of Thought, Stanley Turrentine, Hank Crawford and, for two decades, Ahmad Jamal.

His first album as a leader was Black Rhythm Revolution! (Prestige, 1970), followed by Power of Soul (Kudu, 1974), recorded in March 1974 at Van Gelder Studio, produced by Creed Taylor and arranged by Bob James, which AllMusic gave five stars and Thom Jurek said is one of the reasons Muhammad is regarded as the drumming king of groove. Turn This Mutha Out (Kudu, 1977) was produced and arranged by David Matthews, one of few Kudu albums not produced by Taylor, and he later recorded for Fantasy, Lipstick and Theresa, and Cannonball.

Later years

From 1978 he concentrated on jazz, with Johnny Griffin, then Pharoah Sanders in 1980; in the mid-1980s he was based in Britain and Europe, and in the 1990s he was back in New York with John Hicks, Lonnie Smith, John Scofield and Monty Alexander. He moved back to New Orleans in 2011, and his autobiography, Inside the Music: The Life of Idris Muhammad, appeared in 2012. He died on July 29, 2014 in Fort Lauderdale, aged 74. His drumming has been sampled by the Beastie Boys, 2Pac and Nas, and the Louisiana State Museum holds several of his instruments. He endorsed Istanbul Agop cymbals.