A light little 60s pop beat by Idris Muhammad— I don’t know what to call it, part boogaloo, part bossa nova— from George Benson’s album Shape Of Things To Come. The whole record is like […]
Category: Idris Muhammad
Groove o’ the day: Idris Muhammad – Last Train to Clarkesville
Idris Muhammad plays a hip train beat on George Benson’s cover of a Monkees hit, Last Train To Clarkesville, from his 1968 album Shape Of Things To Come. He’s playing rim clicks with a stick […]
Daily best music in the world / groove o’ the day: Sookie Sookie
I heard this on Portland’s jazz station KMHD yesterday— on Ben Turner’s excellent afternoon show. You probably don’t have a decent local jazz station, so you should be streaming KMHD online and becoming a monthly […]
Listening: Idris Muhammad grooves
Hey, I’ve concluded that Idris Muhammad is awesome. There’s a lot going on with him, that doesn’t necessarily give itself up to the casual drumming listener— it’s a very deep fusion of jazz, R&B, funk, […]
Page o’ coordination: Freddie Waits Afro
UPDATE: A student brought it to my attention that according to Wikipedia, Idris Muhammad is the drummer on this track. Which surprises me, but there you go. A combination groove o’ the day and page […]
Idris’s clave
A page of beats based on a snare drum rhythm used a lot by Idris Muhammad. It’s a sort of one-bar clave, an inversion of the rhythm commonly called tresillo, starting on beat 3. I’ve […]
Groove o’ the day: two by Idris Muhammad with Melvin Sparks
Two similar grooves played by Idris Muhammad with the guitarist Melvin Sparks. The tunes are also very similar, following the same basic template. Both grooves have this as the main snare drum rhythm: It’s a […]
Groove o’ the day: Idris Muhammad Mozambique
Here is Idris Muhammad playing a Mozambique-like Latin groove with Melvin Sparks, on Speak Low, from the album Sparkling. Muhammad isn’t on many of the records I listen to all the time, but he is […]
Daily best music in the world: Idris Muhammad
Here’s what I’m listening to as I finish writing the 2017 Book of the Blog, which will be available for you to order by Monday. I’ve played this thing like 10 times. My theory is […]
Getting tired of these
Mortality is a real bitch— just in the past couple of days we’ve lost Idris Muhammad, and Frankie Dunlop. I can’t ignore their passing, but I’m no good at just showering superlatives on people, which […]
Groove o’ the day: Idris Muhammad — The Windjammer
Here’s a funk groove with a couple of unusual touches, and a New Orleans flavor, by Idris Muhammad. The tune is The Windjammer, from Grant Green’s 1970 album Green Is Beautiful. On the intro Muhammad […]
Groove o’ the day: Grant Green — Cantaloupe Woman
Here are two different Blue Note/soul/boogaloo-type grooves on the tune Cantaloupe Woman, from albums by Grant Green. First, from the great session drummer Ben Dixon (who also wrote the tune), as played on the 1965 […]