Shape of Things to Come serves as the A&M/CTI debut of Leo Morris, the drummer better known today as Idris Muhammad (1939-2014). The New Orleans-born Morris started recording professionally as a teen, performing on Fats Domino’s 1956 hit “Blueberry Hill.” Eventually Morris worked with Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield before becoming an in-demand New York session man, waxing many records throughout the sixties and seventies.
In the late sixties, he converted to Islam and adopted the name Idris Muhammed, the moniker which started appearing on his recordings hereafter. There was always an especially funky groove to his playing that made much of his work on Blue Note (with Lou Donaldson especially) and Prestige so popular. “All my rhythms are based on two elements,” said Muhammad. “It’s so simple and that’s what blows people’s minds. The two elements are the Second Line bass drum patterns, and the tambourine rhythms from the Indians dancing at Mardi Gras.”1
Muhammad became Creed Taylor’s go-to drummer around this time, as Grady Tate began concentrating more on his singing career. As Idris Muhammad, the drummer put out a couple of solo albums on Prestige before making his CTI-subsidiary Kudu debut in 1974 with the seminal Power of Soul, featuring Grover Washington, Jr.’s heavily sampled “Loran’s Dance.” Muhammad recorded another three records for Kudu and each is now considered a disco classic (each is highly prized as funk classics in Europe). Muhammad recorded three more disco-oriented outings for Fantasy and continued playing on many others’ albums throughout the eighties and nineties.
He has also recorded memorably with Pharoah Sanders, John Hicks, Randy Weston, David Murray and Ahmad Jamal.
Endnote:
- Idris Muhammad, Inside the Music: The Life of Idris Muhammad (Idris Muhammad) 2012, p. 59. ↩︎