Idris Muhammad
b. Leo Morris, 13 November 1939, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Immaculate, imaginative and equally at home on contemporary jazz and more popular funk and soul sessions, Idris Muhammad is one of America's most impressive and swinging drummers. Playing since the age of eight, he began working professionally in the soul scene in the early '60s, accompanying vocalists Jerry Butler, Sam Cooke and the Impressions. The gifted bebop alto saxophonist Lou Donaldson hired Muhammad for his soul-jazz group in 1965, and work with guitarist George Benson followed. In the early '70s, Muhammad became house drummer for the Prestige label, again playing mainly an unadventurous soul/jazz that offered him little room to stretch out and take advantage of his talents. Spells with Roberta Flack followed, but by the end of the '70s, Muhammad was able to put together his own band and started concentrating on modern jazz. Toward the end of the decade he joined hard-bop tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin, and then began a celebrated spell with fellow tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. He continues to work intermittently with Sanders, and recently toured internationally and recorded with an all-star saxophone-orientated band, that included Chico Freeman, Arthur Blythe, Sam Rivers and pianist Don Pullen.