Mickey Hart Still Drumming at the Edge of Magic “Amazing, gratifying, humbling,” is how Mickey Hart describes the experience of joining the ranks of the PAS Hall of Fame. “Being with all the greats—Tito [Puente], Baba [Olatunji], Buddy Rich, Gene Krupa, Louis Bellson. These are my teachers, my mentors, the brother and sisterhood. I ride on the shoulders of giants,” he says with surest convic- tion. “It’s what came be- fore you that makes you what you are. All those legends that came be- fore me motivated me to continue and continue and continue.” By B. Michael Williams PERCUSSIVE NOTES 12 noveMBER 2009 ickey Hart could have been already in the planning stages for Global Drum content being a rock Project II, so stay tuned! Rhythm is at the star. For nearly thirty Hart’s enthusiasm for world percussion years, he was a driving was a natural outgrowth of his collabora- very center of our lives. force behind the Grate- tion with fellow Grateful Dead drummer Bill ful Dead. The group was Kreutzmann. Every concert included a half- By acknowledging this fact inducted into the Rock and hour drum extravaganza by the duo dubbed Roll Hall of Fame in 1994. the “Rhythm Devils.” These extended percus- and acting on it, our potential Throughout his tenure with the Dead, and sion experiences (one cannot call them simply even in his earliest formative years, Hart trav- “drum solos”) introduced countless audiences for preventing illness and eled his own path, fueled by an indescribably (known affectionately as “Dead Heads”) to powerful need to connect with the drumming an ever-expanding collection of percussion maintaining mental, physical, ancestry shared by all percussionists. instruments from every corner of the globe In his book Drumming at the Edge of Magic, and fueled Hart’s curiosity and passion for and spiritual well-being Hart describes his nearly fanatical timeline of learning all he could about the origin of his information pertaining to percussion instru- instruments. is far greater. ments from around the globe. Made up of Hart composed music for Francis Ford index cards and photographs, the timeline Coppola’s blockbuster filmApocalypse Now in ways record catalog—over 3,000 LPs,” he said. grew to over sixty feet long, meandering along 1980. He recalls, “Francis came to see one of “We’re in the process of converting all of them the walls of The Barn (which housed a record- the [Grateful Dead] shows at Winterland, and into digital media.” In 1999, the Saybrook ing studio, among other attractions) at his he wanted his movie to sound like the Rhythm Graduate School and Research Center in San northern California home. Mickey called it his Devils, so he asked me to compose the percus- Francisco awarded Hart an Honorary Doctor- Anaconda (with a capital A). Researching the sion score. I built special instruments for the ate of Humane Letters for his work in advanc- world of this latest PAS Hall of Fame inductee, air strike scene and literally played the whole ing the preservation of aural archives. I discovered another Anaconda: a complex and movie. Francis put the film on a loop and Hart credits Babatunde Olatunji with in- driven drummer, scholar, author, composer, played it over and over while we put the music spiring his quest into world percussion. “He recording artist, entertainer, archivist, activ- to it. It was more than fun!” was a pioneer; he set the example,” Mickey ist, and perennial student named Mickey Since then, Hart has composed scores, remembers. “When I heard Drums of Passion, Hart. soundtracks, and themes for movies and tele- Nigerian rhythms mixed with city sounds, it Born September 11, 1943, Mickey received vision. In 1996, he was invited to compose put me on a whole other path of exploring the a public-school music education grounded music for the opening ceremony of the 26th world’s rhythms. These were sacred rhythmic in rudimental drumming. “My father was a Summer Olympiad in Atlanta. He remembers, signatures. The talking drum sound from that drummer,” says Hart in Drumming at the Edge “They had my book, Planet Drum, and they first record was riveting. It opened a whole of Magic, “my mother, too. They were rudi- said, ‘This is what the Olympics are all about. new world. Baba brought ritual trance music mental drummers, which means they prac- It’s a gathering of tribes and rhythm. We want to the West. He gave me a rhythmic life that ticed a type of drumming that evolved out of a to put that spirit into the opening ceremony. was invaluable. I can never repay him.” military tradition.” We’d like you to compose the first ten minutes Asked about how he got so deeply involved It seems prophetic that the young man for percussion.’” Hart composed the piece for with music and healing, Hart responded, “Al- would grow to beat his swords into the plow- more than 100 percussionists playing dozens most thirty years ago, my grandmother was shares of drumming for health, healing, and of instruments from six continents to create suffering from Alzheimer’s. She was in the love. In 1991, he appeared before the U.S. “sounds of the Olympic spirits and tribes.” advanced stages and hadn’t spoken in quite Senate Committee on Aging, speaking on As a Trustee of the American Folklife Cen- some time. I visited her and brought a drum behalf of the healing value of drumming and ter of the Library of Congress, Hart is deeply to play for her and was astonished when she rhythm to afflictions associated with aging. invested in the Endangered Music Project to said my name! Rhythm connects people with A member of the Board of Directors of the preserve the library’s vast collection of sound the resonance of the universe. It’s all about Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, recordings. “We’ve made lots of progress in vibrations. We’re now finding out what parts he received that institution’s 2003 Music Has identifying rare and endangered collections,” of the brain light up when we’re ‘on music,’ Power Award, in recognition of his advocacy he said. “The materials on which these great and it’s incredibly exciting. For me, it’s very and commitment to raising public awareness recordings were imprinted—wax, tin, acetate, personal. Watching my grandmother respond of the positive effects of music. magnetic tape—are deteriorating. Our goal is so positively to sound and rhythm was a turn- The author of four books, Hart published to transfer them into a digital medium before ing point.” his seminal Drumming at the Edge of Magic: A they are no longer retrievable. The Library In his 1991 address to the U.S. Senate Com- Journey into the Spirit of Percussion in 1990, of Congress houses the largest repository of mittee on Aging, Hart said, “What is true of followed by Planet Drum in 1991. The compan- indigenous music in the world, and the money our own bodies is true almost everywhere we ion CD, also titled Planet Drum, featuring Hart raised from the sale of these recordings goes look. We are embedded within a rhythmical with a host of world-class percussionists, sat back into the culture, so it’s an important universe. Everywhere we see rhythm, pat- at the number-one position on the Billboard project. The other challenge is to allow access terns moving through time. It is there in the World Music Chart for 26 weeks and won to people. Some of the music is now available cycles of the seasons, in the migration of birds the first-ever Grammy Award for Best World on the Internet at the website of the American and animals, in the fruiting and withering Music Album in 1991. Fittingly, Hart won an- Folklife Center [www.loc.gov/folklife]. Pres- of plants, and in the birth, maturation, and other Grammy this year, taking the 2009 Best ervation and access, those are the two chal- death of ourselves. Rhythm is at the very Contemporary World Music Album award for lenges.” center of our lives. By acknowledging this fact Global Drum Project with Zakir Hussain, Sikiru Hart is also on the Board of Directors of and acting on it, our potential for preventing Adepoju, Giovanni Hidalgo, and computer the Smithsonian’s American Recorded Sound illness and maintaining mental, physical, and sound wizard Jonah Sharp. Mickey says he is Project. “The Smithsonian has the entire Folk- spiritual well-being is far greater.” PERCUSSIVE NOTES 13 noveMBER 2009 Hart went on to suggest that forming mention rock star), Mickey Hart has given of wholly emotional. Your emotions seem to therapeutic drumming activities for the el- himself to his community. And his community stream down your arms and legs and out the derly should be an integral part of any music reaches the world over. In Drumming at the mouth of the drum; you feel light, gravity-less, therapy program. “The object is not public per- Edge of Magic, Mickey quotes an African prov- your arms feel like feathers. formance,” he said. “Because, when we speak erb, “A village without music is a dead place.” “You fly like a bird.” of this type of drumming, we are speaking of Thanks to the passion of this Grateful Dead a deeper realm in which there is no better or drummer, our percussive world is very much Books by Mickey Hart worse, no modern or primitive, no distinc- alive. “In the beginning was noise,” he wrote, Drumming at the Edge of Magic: A Journey into the tions at all, but rather an almost organic “and noise begat rhythm, and rhythm begat Spirit of Percussion, Harper Collins, 1990 compulsion to translate the emotional fact everything else.