 Akbar
Muhammad
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Akbar Muhammad: About the Man and the Music by George Wheeler After nearly fifteen years of providing music and entertainment for many fans, in and around the Los Angeles area, an end to a era came to a sudden and dramatic conclusion. Louis Burke, the leader of the South Park 18-piece jazz band, died July 6, 1992 in a Los Angeles hospital. The leadership of the band was passed on to Akbar Muhammad, lead alto sax player, who had always served as co-director. Myrna Oliver, Times Staff Writer, wrote in the July 11th issue of the Times, that the wife, Mildred Burke said, "Louis told me to tell Akbar that he was to take over and keep the band together for the gigs he had already booked." For fifteen years, the band had rehearsed weekly at the South Park recreation hall on 51st street. The band had peformed at such places as the Biltmore and Bonaventure hotels, the Wilshire Country Club and the Playboy Club in Century City. It had performed at many charitable events and political functions, particularly for the late, great City Councilman, Gilbert Lindsey, who loved the big band sound and would often be at some of the rehearsals. Akbar would remained at the helm of the band for two more years, but grew restless and wanted to return to playing in a smaller group that would feature his own song writing and playing talents. It took a long time to get moving and that is one of the hazards of working a day job: There never seems to be enough time left in the day to devote to developing other gigs! Getting work in today's market means having a CD and securing some airplay. He resisted this concept and played at weddings and parties, occasionally showing up at a jam session. This wasn't working. He turned down all offers to play in bands who toured and the result was predictable. He was only getting calls from people who wanted him to play in other local big bands. During this time, he turned those offers down as well. It felt strange turning those offers down, but he had to stick with what was going to make him happy. But today...progress has been made and his music has been recorded and copyrighted and is now ready for sale over the Internet! He has ventured into a marketplace with unlimited potential and finds himself once again really challenged and loving every minute of it. Like his mentor, Louis Burke...Akbar really does enjoy working with and for people. One of his clients, Dave Orchard, the owner of Four Winds Bus Lines says, "Over the years, I have observed this man at work training my employees and he makes them better." Akbar has made himself available to men like Dave, who does not want or who cannot afford a full-time instructor on site, and accepts weekend work from these sources much to the dislike of his wife. He works for Cardinal Transportation full-time, owned by Roy Weber, a school bus contractor, and has held the position of Safety and Training Director for the last 13 years. His wife thinks that he will kill himself working 6 and 7 days a week. Unlike the early days of his youth, music is not always the priority now, but it is still his one true love. He plays and write, and now, has become a producer of his first CD. It's called,"Musician With a Day Job!" It also features a stimulating narrative with music in the background. Akbar makes it clear that he is merely voicing an opinion on certain social issues and not really promoting a claim to exclusive information. This is an era where "rapping" or voicing your ideas is widely accepted and promoted in the record business, so what can be so different in doing it associated with serious musicians such as Akbar? He thinks that it is important to know what the world misses out on when musicians limit their gifts to simply being just the performer. You may write back how you feel to his email address: amuhammad@socal.rr.com. The music sounds as if it belongs on the "wave," a popular radio station in and around Southern Los Angeles County. It is romantic music featuring soft rock, latin rhythms and some funk. Akbar said that it was very difficult holding back on the length of the solos, both for him and the piano player, both of whom are featured on all the solos. Most jazz musicians have that need to play solos until their ideas have been exhausted. He decided to break with that tradition so as to make the music more listener-friendly. Another consideration was to keep in mind what the radio programers would want. And the length of the songs is a factor in making their choices, unless there is name recognition involved, so really it was not too hard of a decision to arrive at. Another brief word about the commentary: it may be the one area where the most risk exists where this product is concerned. How could people know who he really is, if he didn't express those feelings about his surroundings, the people in his life and the social issues of the times in which we now live? The music alone does not really cover all of that and the one thing that he is not, is a pure entertainer. Akbar is a teacher. More than anything, he is a teacher and it is important to show that to his fans and friends who already know this. New fans will have no problem seeing this. So, his resolve is that the commentary must stay. You must hear it to decide for yourself. buy yours now. Note: George Wheeler is a drummer out of New York who went to school with Akbar while both were students at George Washington High. Akbar played in a sextet in his band and they appeared at many of the famous places in that great city, including: the Apollo, Radio Music City, the Loft, Smalls Paradise and others. Notes about the musicians: by Akbar Muhammad Harold Land, Jr. is the son of a very famous tenor saxophonist and is the pianist on this date. It was through his recommendations that the other musicians were booked for this album. I wanted people who were familiar with each other, but most of all, I wanted them to be comfortable with each other. We did not have the benefit of a lot of rehearsal time. I have known Harold for quite some time and I think he is one of the finest young piano players in town. He and I are the primary soloists on all of the songs and the bass player is featured on at least two or three. The bass player is Jeffery Littleton and he has played with Nancy Wilson, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard, among others and was available at the right time. This was very fortunate for me. I really enjoyed his playing and it was the first time we had played together. He loves to solo so room was granted for him on a few selections, but our drum- mer thought that this was not a good idea. His thinking was that the smooth jazz stations, such as Wave 98.7 fm, would not react too kindly to it. Jeffrey was given the room to do his thing anyway. The drummer is Gerald Brown and Harold recommended him be- cause he plays the funky stuff real good. This is the first time for me meeting Gerald and I was extremely happy with the way he played no matter what the rhythm was. He was very helpful with technical advice that drove the session along with very little wasted time. I appreciated his thoughtfulness about the economics of it all, because I was working with a very limited budget. It took us only two days to lay the tracks down. All of these guys are union musicians and conducted themselves like the professionals that they are. Of course, the mixing and mastering took a little longer, but this only involved the engineerer and myself. The other guys have not heard the finished product and must wait on me to send them a copy. I really did enjoy this session and not just because it consisted of all original compositions of mine. God Willing, I will bring another on the scene real soon. Peace.
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