🌤️ Could Heaven Ever Be Like This? Idris Muhammad and the Groove Between Jazz, Funk, and Disco

The Twelve Inch 190 : Could Heaven Ever Be Like This (Idris Muhammad)

Now here’s a name you might not know unless you’re deep into jazz: Idris Muhammad. But if you were going out in 1977, you may have danced to him without realizing it. His luminous floor-filler “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This”was a staple at serious New York parties like The Loft or clubs like the Paradise Garage, and later made its way across the Atlantic to the UK’s most discerning dancefloors. Singular, spiritual, and straight-up gorgeous, it’s one of those tracks that can quiet even the most committed disco skeptic.

Idris was one of the most gifted drummers of the 1970s, a respected jazz player who refused to be boxed in. Like several of his contemporaries, he crossed over into funk and disco, chasing rhythm and feeling wherever they led. Between 1974 and 1978 he released a run of adventurous albums, but his 1977 LP Turn This Mutha Out, and especially “Could Heaven Ever Be Like This”, was his high-water mark.

I can’t recall exactly when I first heard it, but like those dancers at The…