Diggin' Ain't EZ, chapter 3

Chapter Three: Idris Muhammad, Turn This Mutha Out (Kudu, 1977) —

LP Cover, someone signed & dated mine

I've been looking for stuff by this guy for awhile, ever since reading a feature about him in Wax Poetics many years ago. IM was a much-desired session drummer appearing on hundreds of jazz-funk recordings in the seventies, working with cats like Galt McDermot and even appearing on Bob James' much-sampled "Nautilus." He also recorded ten or so solo albums as well. Here's a partial discography

This is not 1974's Power of Soul with its sample champion "Loran's Dance", but a very refreshing record nonetheless — a bit heavy on the disco side of things, i.e. swirling strings & keyboards, typical backing vocals styles. Obviously they were trying for the dance-floor market (especially on sprawling "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This," a real disco burner). But you cannot over-produce the raw quality of the playing. It's complex, dense, evolving rather than repeating. And the drumming, Lawd have mercy — the drumming. Lots of the tracks feature IM pounding on a tom-tom over the sound of his own drum kit — which after hearing Ernie Isley doing this on the second side of 3 + 3 (1973) I think is one of my favorite sounds.

The album is produced by David Matthews, who had been the arranger for James Brown's band in the early 1970s, and it seems he had a hand in composing every track on this album. Don't know if that is a difference for Idris (since I don't have any of his other LPs), but it seems that Matthews had his finger pretty confidently on the pulsebeat of disco here.

Track Listing

A) Could Heaven Ever Be Like This
Camby Bolongo **
Turn This Mutha Out

B) Tasty Cakes
Crab Apple **
Moon Hymn **
Say What

** Not to be missed

That's all for now. I picked up three other records on my latest jaunt, but none as interesting as this one, at least so far. (That's all for new stuff this month -- it goes quick. There's one more intriguing recently released LP waiting for me at home. When I return from vacation, we'll focus on some of the cool stuff I already have in the stacks...)