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Most artists would be happy with a single successful career. Not
Mickey Hart. A drummer with the nearly mythic band
Grateful Dead,
Hart managed to escape the stasis that legends often devolve into by following a path of the spirit that led him to world music. The journey began with a friendship with Indian master drummer
Zakir Hussain that spawned 1975's
Diga Rhythm Band, an early experiment in worldbeat fusion.
Hart's interaction with drummers from around the world sparked an abiding interest in the social and mythological role of the drum in other cultures.
Hart originally joined
the Grateful Dead in 1967 as its second percussionist. Three years later, he left
the Dead to cut the solo album
Rolling Thunder in 1972 (which featured various members of
the Dead).
Hart returned to the band in 1974, and stayed with them for their entire run, although his musical activities outside
the Dead were extensive. In 1976,
the Dead's Round Records label released
Diga by
the Diga Rhythm Band, an early experiment in worldbeat fusion put together by
Hart. The years 1979 and 1980 saw the release of two albums of music from the film Apocalypse Now, much of it contributed by
Hart.
In 1983,
Hart released albums under the heading the World. These began with a reissue of Diga Rhythm Band. Then came a series of albums of music
Hart had recorded around the world. In 1989,
Hart released
Music to Be Born By, an album based on the heartbeat of his son in the womb, and 1990 saw the simultaneous release of
Hart's first book, Drumming at the Edge of Magic, and an album,
At the Edge. In 1991, another book and disc, both called
Planet Drum, appeared. Both albums made the upper reaches of the new age and world music charts. Supralingua followed in 1998, and two years later
Hart returned with
Spirit into Sound.
The year 2007 saw the release of
Global Drum Project, co-billed to
Hart with
Zakir Hussain,
Sikiru Adepoju, and
Giovanni Hidalgo. Released on Shout! Factory, it won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album. The trio all appeared on
Hart's next recording, 2012's
Mysterium Tremendum, billed to
the Mickey Hart Band and featuring seven songs written by
Hart with longtime
Grateful Dead lyricist
Robert Hunter. One year later,
Superorganism appeared with much the same lineup, and included four songs with lyrics by
Hunter. In 2017
Hart signed with
Verve and delivered the album
Ramu. ~ William Ruhlmann & Bob Tarte