Material Live 2004

HAMID DRAKE

This brilliant, sensitive, endlessly rhythmic, intelligent, spiritual, and powerful drummer / percussionist from Chicago was born in 1955 in Monroe, Louisiana, and his family moved to Evanston, Illinois when he was a child, just as an older musician from Monroe named Fred Anderson also moved to Evanston with his own family. Hamid Drake started out playing with local rock and R&B bands, which eventually brought him to the great Fred Anderson' s attention, and through workshops Fred Anderson was giving, young Hamid first got to know Douglas Ewart, George Lewis, and other members of Chicago' s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Hamid's flowing rhythmic expressions and interest in the roots of the music drew other like~minded musicians together into a performance and educational collective named the Mandingo Griot Society, which combined traditional African music and narrative with distinctly American influences.

After meeting Don Cherry, Hamid Drake and fellow percussionist Adam Rudolph traveled with Don to Europe, where they spent much time exploring the interior landscape of percussion, while working nonstop to share deeply in Mr. Cherry's grasp of music's spiritually infinite transformational possibilities. Among drummers he has cited as being influential to him are Ed Blackwell, Adam Rudolph, Philly Joe Jones, and Jo Jones, and it was through the latter's broad-based concepts that Hamid was impelled to explore earlier forms of drumming that had been drawn into jazz before the advent of free jazz. One result of these interests is that his playing is often more structured and touches upon more identifiable bases than that of many of his contemporary percussionists. He also frequently plays without sticks, using his hands to develop subtly commanding undertones, and his tabla playing is notable for his subtlety and flair.

Now touring and recording all over the world, and in constant demand, Hamid Drake has provided deftly inventive rhythmic support to forward~ thinking musicians such as Peter Brotzmann, Marilyn Crispell, Pierre Dorge, Johnny Dyani, Hassan Hakmoun, Herbie Hancock, Joseph Jarman, Geoge Lewis, Sabir Mateen, Joe McPhee, Jim Pepper, William Parker, Dewey Redman, Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter, Foday Musa Suso, John Tchicai, Malachi Thompson, Ken Vandermark, fellow percussionist Michael Zerang, and almost all the members of the A.A.C.M. With these diverse artists, playing in a broad range of musical settings, Hamid comfortably adapts to North and West African and Indian impulses, as well as reggae and Latin, American jazz, musics from all over the African diaspora.

Sufism is the delight of my heart, and Buddhism is the illumination of my mind," he has said, and his artistic and spiritual powers are such that this delight and this illumination translate directly into the profound effect of his playing on the souls of all who hear him.

MATERIAL LIVE 2004
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		HAMID DRAKE This brilliant, sensitive, endlessly rhythmic, intelligent, spiritual, and powerful drummer / percussionist from Chicago was born in 1955 in Monroe, Louisiana, and his family moved to Evanston, Illinois when he was a child, just as an older musician from Monroe named Fred Anderson also moved to Evanston with his own family. Hamid Drake started out playing with local rock and R&B bands, which eventually brought him to the great Fred Anderson' s attention, and through workshops Fred Anderson was giving, young Hamid first got to know Douglas Ewart, George Lewis, and other members of Chicago' s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Hamid's flowing rhythmic expressions and interest in the roots of the music drew other like~minded musicians together into a performance and educational collective named the Mandingo Griot Society, which combined traditional African music and narrative with distinctly American influences. After meeting Don Cherry, Hamid Drake and fellow percussionist Adam Rudolph traveled with Don to Europe, where they spent much time exploring the interior landscape of percussion, while working nonstop to share deeply in Mr. Cherry's grasp of music's spiritually infinite transformational possibilities. Among drummers he has cited as being influential to him are Ed Blackwell, Adam Rudolph, Philly Joe Jones, and Jo Jones, and it was through the latter's broad-based concepts that Hamid was impelled to explore earlier forms of drumming that had been drawn into jazz before the advent of free jazz. One result of these interests is that his playing is often more structured and touches upon more identifiable bases than that of many of his contemporary percussionists. He also frequently plays without sticks, using his hands to develop subtly commanding undertones, and his tabla playing is notable for his subtlety and flair. Now touring and recording all over the world, and in constant demand, Hamid Drake has provided deftly inventive rhythmic support to forward~ thinking musicians such as Peter Brotzmann, Marilyn Crispell, Pierre Dorge, Johnny Dyani, Hassan Hakmoun, Herbie Hancock, Joseph Jarman, Geoge Lewis, Sabir Mateen, Joe McPhee, Jim Pepper, William Parker, Dewey Redman, Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter, Foday Musa Suso, John Tchicai, Malachi Thompson, Ken Vandermark, fellow percussionist Michael Zerang, and almost all the members of the A.A.C.M. With these diverse artists, playing in a broad range of musical settings, Hamid comfortably adapts to North and West African and Indian impulses, as well as reggae and Latin, American jazz, musics from all over the African diaspora. Sufism is the delight of my heart, and Buddhism is the illumination of my mind," he has said, and his artistic and spiritual powers are such that this delight and this illumination translate directly into the profound effect of his playing on the souls of all who hear him.