Drumobit: Idris Muhammad

Idris Muhammad, drummer on many, many tracks but not least Fats Domino's Blueberry Hill, has died.

Blueberry Hill was the first of numerous high spots in a career which included funk albums under his own name, drumming in the original Broadway production of Hair and working with Roberta Flack, Sam Cooke and Curtis Mayfield.

And he got sampled to buggery, but chose to see it as a positive, rather than a chance to make money, as the New York Times observes:

Mr. Muhammad was widely sampled by hip-hop artists, including Tupac Shakur, the Notorious B.I.G., Eminem, Lupe Fiasco and Drake. The Beastie Boys album “Paul’s Boutique” opens with a lengthy sample of “Loran’s Dance,” from “The Power of Soul.” Asked in an interview how he felt about other people using his music, he told Wax Poetics magazine, “It don’t really belong to me, man,” adding: “The gift the Creator has given me, I can’t be selfish with. If I keep it in my pocket, it’s not going to go anyplace.”

Idris Muhammad - who before converting to Islam was known as Leo Morris - was 74; he died July 29th.