He is a drummer, percussionist, author, producer, composer
and musicologist who ran the instrument retail outlet, Hart Music, during
the 1960s in San Carlos, California, with his father who had been a
champion drummer.He first
gained his interest in percussion when he was at grade school and a visiting
drummer from Nigeria, Babatunde Olatunji, performed at the school and
allowed him and other students to have a go at playing them.This had an immense effect on him
and he subsequently performed in the high school and Air Force marching
bands as well as becoming the drummer's student and regularly working in
collaboration with him in his professional career.He also began studying and collecting
percussion instruments from all over the world and working with many
international percussionists. He became a member of the group Grateful Dead
in 1967 and stayed with them until 1971 before venturing out as a solo
artist to record his album Rolling Thunder in 1972.He returned to the group in 1974
and this time became a long time member, staying with them until they disbanded
in 1995. During that time he and
Bill Kreutzmann, who was also a Grateful Dead drummer, became known as "the
rhythm kings" and they have put out at least two albums under that name.He has appeared/worked on many
recordings with at least 10 of his own which include the Grammy Award
winning Planet Drum, which was the first Grammy given for "Best
World Music Album", Music to be Born By, At the Edge, Spirit into Sound
and Supralingua and also American Beauty, Aoxomoxoa,, Live/Dead,Terrapin Station and many more with the Grateful Dead, If I Could
Only Remember My Name by David Crosby, Kundun by Philip Glass
and Intersections 1985-2005 by Bruce Hornsby.Other groups and artists he has
worked with through the course of his long career include Joan Baez, Norton
Buffalo, Diga Rhythm Band, Jerry Garcia, The Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra, Woody
Guthrie, Samy Hagar, Jefferson Starship, the Latvian Women's Choir, Country
Joe McDonald, Riders of the Purple Sage and Grace Slick as just a few of
many.In the world of
television and movies his work as a musician and/or composer can be heard
in the series Twilight Zone and Vietnam: A Television History,
in the movies Apocalypse Now, Gang Related and Rabbit Ears: Aladdin
and the Magic Lamp and on the soundtracks of The Dreamers, Festival
Express and Made in America to name just a few.A respected musicologist, he has
worked tirelessly on reviving some of the world's oldest traditional music
that has been facing the possibility of disappearing forever.To this end he has worked with the
Smithsonian Institute, is a board member of the American Folklife Center
and the National Recorded Sound Preservation Board at the Library of
Congress and is a spokesperson for Save Our Sounds, which is an
organisation that concentrates on audio preservation. Carrying this work into the medical
field he is also on the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function's Board
of Directors.Recognised for
his contributions to bringing music and its positive effect to the public,
he was given the Music Has Power Award in 2003 and he was inducted into the
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame with the Grateful Dead in 1994. As an author he has written several
books that look into the historical traditions of drumming such as Drumming
at the Edge of Magic: A Journey into the Spirit of Percussion, Planet Drum:
A Celebration of Percussion and Rhythm, Songcatchers: In Search of the
World's Music and Spirit into Sound: The Magic of Music.During the 2000s he has created the
Hydra Project with members of Particle, created the Global Drum Project, formed
an official group called The Rhythm Kings with Bill Kreutzman and others who
toured in 2006, appeared as a guest musician on Jimmy Buffett's Party at
the End of the World tour, still works with the members of the Grateful
Dead in an offshoot band called The Dead and is currently heard performing
with The Mickey Hart Band.
