Global Drum Project

Mickey Hart

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 2, 2007)
• Original Release Date: October 2, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Shout Factory
• ASIN: B000VALY7C
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #41,506 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It was three decades ago that Mickey Hart stepped out from behind the Grateful Dead and created his first global drum project on Diga Rhythm Band. That album still sounds as fresh and vibrant today as it did in 1976, when it was received more as a curiosity than the world-music prophecy it turned out to be. Hart and his rhythm partner from Diga, tabla titan Zakir Hussain, reworked the concept for their Planet Drum album in 1991, and they now return with Global Drum Project. It's an CD that continues Hart's infatuation with electronic toys and their percussive possibilities as he mixes samples and MIDI-triggered electronics into the works. With Planet Drummers Sikiru Adepoju and Giovanni Hidalgo plus Taufiq Qureshi joining in, there's little doubt that GDP is a groove-centric album. After the exultant opening track "Baba," featuring Babatunde Olatunji, the soul of the original Planet Drum, sampled posthumously, most tracks settle into dark, swampy, steady-state grooves. Sampled rhythmic singing from Zakir punctuates "Under One Groove," while "Heartspace" adds sarangi and sitar for a more Eastern, meditative space. It isn't the virtuoso rhythm workout you might expect, but neither is it the orchestrated percussive percolations of Diga or Planet Drum. Instead, it's a chilled electro-percussive jam session with looping grooves oscillated by electronics and cut with a digital razor. --John Diliberto

Product Description

Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart's innovative Planet Drum CD convened some of the world's finest drum talent for a collaboration that won the very first GRAMMY for world music -- bringing together Nigerian drum legend Babatunde Olatunji, Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, Nigerian talking drum ace Sikiru Adepoju, and Puerto Rico's master conguero Giovanni Hidalgo, among others. The 1991 album spent an unprecedented 26 weeks at #1 on the Billboard world music chart, and continues to sell as a perennial favorite.

Fifteen years later, the musical partnership of Hart and Hussain -- which began with their groundbreaking 1970s world fusion experiment Diga Rhythm Band -- resumes, with a fresh collaboration of tranced-out grooves, elegant electronic programming and hypnotic tuned percussion and again enlists the great partnership of Adepoju and Hidalgo. This time they are joined by Taufiq Qureshi on percussion & vocals, Niladari Kumar on sitar, Dilshad Khan on sarangi, and the late, great Olatunji in sampled vocals from the original sessions. Elements from Hart's various world music recordings, including the Kaluli tribespeople of Papua New Guinea's rainforest, are woven with the live performances into a danceable, multitextured celebration of rhythm.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Four Masters Deliver the Next Phase of the Journey, October 2, 2007

By	John Peregrim (The Sierra Nevada Foothills) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mickey Hart's ongoing passion for rhythm and the percussive potential of almost any instrument, object or process, once again surfaces gloriously on this album which reunites the core of the original Planet Drum, minus the late Babtunde Olatunji (except as a vocal sample on the opening track), and the team of Airto and Flora Purim. While the loss of these three who were at the forefront of the first Planet Drum recording in 1991 is unfortunate, the larger role given to Giovanni Hidalgo certainly helps to compensate for the loss of Airto and Purim in providing that essential Latin groove. Nigerian talking drummer Sikiru Adepoju is also given a larger role, providing a solid replacement for the loss of Olatunji. Yet "Global Drum Project" does not merely repeat the formulas of the first, great, Grammy-winning album, but gives a greater role to the burgeoning fascination with the rhythmic possibilities of electronic loops and samples, an aspect of their current explorations that are included in their live performaces as well. Although the sticker on the front of "Global Drum Project" announces this as the "long awaited sequel" to Planet Drum, it's important to remember that this is not actually the case, since the second phase of this group delivered "Supralingua" in 1998, which itself forms a transition between the first album and the current release. Despite the passing of so much time between each offering, this stripped down version of Drum shows as much inventiveness and passion as either of the two previous recordings, although its relatively laid-back impression may surprise some. Even the inclusion of actual lyrics on the album's final track, "I Can Tell You More," advances the Project into yet another realm of potential exploration. If I give it only four stars, it's because of the relative shortness of the album compared to the earlier releases, not because anything is lacking musically or in terms of exploration, and becuase there isn't a four and one half rating. Those who loved Hart's earlier outtings will surely embrace this album as well as the performances of the Project's current tour (see them if you can, they are truly wonderful in concert). Those who don't "get it," probably still won't and may wonder what the fuss is all about. But for anyone who understands that the sound of rhythm/percussion and the human breath and voice are the very soul of music, this is only the next station stop on a miraculous journey. There's so much richness and texture in this album. I could tell you more . . .

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A little different Mickey - but still very good, November 8, 2007

By	Biffybeans "rockin' the shekere" (Northeast, PA) - See all my reviews

As a percussionist and a Mickey Hart fan, I didn't need to listen to the sound clips to know I was going to buy & like this new CD.

This album has a slightly more updated, new-agey/spacey vibe to it than Mickey's earlier projects; Planet Drum and At The Edge. (And I'm totally cool with that.) I think it sounds better, a better mix, better production.... something I can't put my finger on..than Planet Drum or At the Edge.

I've been buying many different CD's in this genre as of late, and in listening to Global Drum Project, I heard pieces that were reminiscent of Jim DiSpirito's "Big Silence," Glen Velez's "Rhythm of the Chakra's," and Jim Donovan's "Drum the Ecstatic." Amazingly, I also caught a hint of Pink Floyd on the song "Under one Groove."

Highly recommended to anyone that appreciates world percussion music.

My only beef is that it's not an ultra long album. It definitely left me wanting for more.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars quite enjoyable..., October 30, 2007

By	Garret S. Sorensen (Winona, MN USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am a percussionist and these cats are fantastic! I saw them play just 3 nights ago and it was mesmerizing. The recording is top-notch. Recommended. Fun, groovy and hypnotic. Get it!