I feel music in your eyes

The best disco record of 1977 was made by a jazz drummer from New Orleans. Idris Muhammad — born Leo Morris, backing Fats Domino while still a teenager — spent decades as one of the most in-demand drummers in soul jazz before Kudu Records let him loose on Turn This Mutha Out, and “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This” is its eight-and-a-half-minute centrepiece.

Arranger David Matthews wrote it (with Tony Sarafino) and stacked the session absurdly deep: Wilbur Bascomb on that impossible bassline, Frank Floyd singing lead, Hiram Bullock on guitar, Michael and Randy Brecker in the horn section — there’s even a harp in there. But the whole thing runs on Muhammad’s drumming, which never once shows off and never once lets go.

If the groove sounds familiar, that’s because Jamiroquai rebuilt it wholesale for “Alright” twenty years later. Skip the cover version of the feeling and go straight to the source — preferably loud, preferably all 8:37 of it.