Personnel includes: Idris Muhammad (drums); Bob James (arranger, conductor, keyboards); Grover Washington, Jr. (soprano saxophone, tenor saxophone); Randy Brecker (trumpet, flugelhorn); Joe Beck (guitar); Gary King (bass); Ralph MacDonald (percussion). Producer: Creed Taylor. Reissue producer: Didier C. Deutsch. Recorded in March 1974. Originally released on CTI Records. Includes liner notes by Didier C. Deutsch. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Though Idris Muhammad has been widely known as one of the finest jazz drummers since the ’60s, he has an equal grounding in pop, funk, and rock. Recording in 1974 for CTI Records offshoot Kudu, he was afforded the perfect opportunity to put his funkier impulses to work. The opening jazz-funk workout, a driving rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s “Power of Soul” is pushed along by keyboardist Bob James’s urgent horn charts, and the licks traded between Grover Washington, Jr. and Randy Brecker on the closing composition “Loran’s Dance” make the slow-burning groove come vividly to life. There are a few moments where the production on POWER OF SOUL verges on the overly smooth, but its nevertheless instructive to note that future lite jazz doyens like James and Washington once had a fair amount of grit in their systems.

• Genre: Pop
• Format: Vinyl
• RSD Date: DDD
• Released: 01/19/2018