🎷 AotW: Kudu Idris Muhammad: Power of Soul (Kudu Records KU-17)

Rudy · Apr 29, 2023

This album snuck up on me. I'd never heard it prior to a few months ago. I wasn't sure what to make of it, as I wasn't all that familiar with Idris Muhammad. Born Leo Morris in New Orleans, he played on a variety of soul dates while in his teens, working with the likes of family friends like the Neville family, Sam Cooke, Curtis Mayfield, Fats Domino (where he can be heard on the hit record "Blueberry Hill"), and Joe Jones (on the hit "You Talk Too Much"). In the mid 60s he began working with jazz artists, most notably Lou Donaldson on Blue Note, on his albums Alligator Boogaloo, Midnight Creeper, Mr. Shing-A-Ling (which had that vaguely Pete Turner-ish photo I posted months ago), and Everything I Play is Funky.

Morris converted to Islam around the same time, but his credits appeared under either name up until a few years later. Once he joined Kudu, he was able to embrace his soul side while also keeping the other foot in jazz. Despite the title, Power of Soul is an album that would have been a better fit for CTI--it fits into Creed Taylor's mold of making jazz that was also friendly and accessible, and its laid back groove at times is something that even non-jazz listeners can appreciate.

This one was so "friendly" that it moved in with me early this year.

(Looking at my stats in the Roon Player, I've played it over 60 times on my home system alone.)

The title track 'burns" a bit with Joe Beck's guitar soloing (after all, it's a Hendrix song and, hardly knowing his records at all, I can't say I recognize it) and a brass section kicking up the excitement but beyond that, this is a really nice album that goes down easy, yet has some "meat" to the jazz side of it. The tracks stretch on for seven minutes or more, but they feel much shorter. Yeah, I know, Bob James does the arranging on this one, but other than contributing a single track ("Piece of Mind"), he only provides a light touch throughout. Grover Washington, Jr. and guitarist Joe Beck provide the remaining two tunes on the record, with Beck's tune "The Saddest Thing" appearing as "Star Fire" on his Kudu album Beck. For me, it's a toss-up between Washington's "Loran's Dance" and Beck's "The Saddest Thing" as a favorite--they are both good, and they have melodies that will stick around a long time.

Muhammad provides a solid groove throughout yet, for being a drummer's album, he restricts any showiness to a small break in the middle of, and a few random bits at the end of, the title track. Rather, the soloists take the spotlight on this album, and there's fine work from all of them. Looking over the many albums on the Kudu label, Muhammad was an anchor on many of them.

That's two great albums this week in our CTI AotW series!

🎷 AotW: Kudu Idris Muhammad: Power of Soul (Kudu Records KU-17)

Power Of Soul, Idris Muhammad - Qobuz

Idris Muhammad - Power Of Soul

Rudy

¡Que siga la fiesta!

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