Idris Muhammad: Black Rhythm Revolution! (Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf series) [CRAFT]

Why you'll love it

This Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf reissue was pressed at RTI with etched runouts. Inside is a funk-heavy drummer's record, with Melvin Sparks on guitar and Harold Mabern on electric piano locking into Muhammad's grooves.

This edition

• Jazz Dispensary Top Shelf series
• Pressed at RTI
• Stereo mix

About the album

Every great soul-jazz session of the late 60s needed somebody at the back keeping it all nailed down, and on a remarkable number of them that somebody was Idris Muhammad. He finally stepped out front in 1970, recording his first album as a leader for Prestige with Bob Porter producing and Rudy Van Gelder at the controls.

The band is a who's who of the label's groove side: Virgil Jones on trumpet, Clarence Thomas on tenor and soprano sax, Harold Mabern on electric piano, Melvin Sparks on guitar, Jimmy Lewis on bass and Buddy Caldwell on congas. Side A takes three tunes from the R&B world, opening with "Express Yourself," stopping off at Jack McDuff's "Soulful Drums" and landing on a strutting "Super Bad." Side B belongs to Muhammad's own writing, the eleven-minute "Wander" and the deep, rolling "By the Red Sea," both built on grooves that just keep giving.

A DownBeat reviewer of the 2023 reissue singled it out for the funkier side of jazz fusion, which is about right. The title does promise a revolution, and to be fair the drums do most of the overthrowing.

Also at Kops: more Idris Muhammad on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Prestige / Craft (cat# CR00523), a reissue of the 1971 album.