House of the Rising Sun

New Orleans drum warrior Idris Muhammad had a lengthy and esteemed session history before beginning his solo career at the start of the seventies. A famously versatile musician, rock solid as a serious jazz player as well as soul, jazz funk,  R’n’B, Latin and disco, his fourth solo set as band leader from 1976 is a serious, heavy-duty funk and jazz excursion. Funk trombonist Fred Wesley is on exemplary form, turning in his trademark syncopated solos, tracks effortlessly flip from creamy, lustrous ensemble playing into sinuous funk workouts, and unsurprisingly Muhammed displays plenty of his perfectly executed, super-accurate extended drum fill journeys around his kit. The New Orleans influence is present in a superior rework of the Meter’s “Hey Pocky a-Way,” which ends side two of the vinyl version (with some CD reissues and the streaming version also including a pair of killer bonus tracks too). A lesson in how to perfectly integrate funk innovations into jazz.