New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Shore Fire Media) Babatunde Olatunji,
Drums of Passion: The Invocation (HRT15000)
Nigerian-born drummer Babatunde Olatunji (1937-2003) collaborated with Mickey Hart to create this album, issued in 1988 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways). Hart and Olatunji sought to retain the "live" sound heard in this digital recording by capturing both the individual instruments as well as the collective sound. Featuring 11 percussionists and seven vocalists, with contributions from Hart, Airto Moreira, and bassist
Bobby Vega, the tracks feature unique spiritual invocations to Yoruba deities played on traditional instruments, such as the ngoma, ashiko, and djembe.
Hamza El Din, Eclipse (HRT15001)
Eclipse,
Hamza El Din's fourth album overall, was originally released in 1978 and reissued as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways). El Din (1929-2006), a pioneering oud (the short-necked, pear-shaped Arabian lute) player, singer, and composer from the Sudan brought pleasures and subtleties of Arab music and Nubian folk tradition to new audiences. His work was particularly noteworthy given ancient Nubia's then-impending drowning in the aftermath of the construction of the High Dam at Aswan. El Din performs oud, tar (a single-skinned frame drum), vocals, and hand claps on tracks ranging from a percussive Nubian wedding song to a traditional Moorish classical piece for teaching voice.
Ustad Sultan Khan, Sarangi: The
Music of
India (HRT15002)
This album represents the intricate sounds of the sarangi (a bowed, short-necked stringed instrument) in the hands of Ustad Sultan Khan, 2010 winner of the Padma Bhushan (India's third highest civilian honor). The sarangi is accompanied by the tabla (a pair of hand drums) performed by Shri Rij Ram. The album was recorded at a live performance arranged by
Ravi Shankar and
George Harrison at Stone House in Marin County during a November 1974 concert tour of the United States. Mickey Hart and Zakir Hussain co-produced the album, originally issued in 1974 and later reissued as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra, The Traveling Jewish Wedding (HRT15003)
The Golden Gate Gypsy Orchestra of
America and California was an itinerant band of engineers, doctors, teachers, and musicians who played their music at weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, and other celebrations. Formed in 1976 by friends who shared a love of Yiddish, Russian, and Rom (Gypsy) music, the band was among the first of its kind to blossom in California. Violin, lute, balalaika (a triangular, stringed lute), contra-bass balalaika, bouzouki (a pear-shaped, long-necked lute), accordion, domra (another long-necked lute), and guitar accompany singers from Israel, Russia, and Mill Valley. Tracks include Russian and Ukrainian folk songs, an Israeli love song inspired by King Solomon's Song of Songs, a ritual circumcision song in Ladino (the language of the Spanish Jews), and a classic Yiddish riddle song ("Tumbalalaika") about the mysteries of the heart. The album was originally issued in 1980 and later reissued as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, The
Music of Upper and Lower Egypt (HRT15004)
The
Music of Upper and Lower Egypt features unique performances recorded during the Grateful Dead's 1978 tour of Egypt. Produced by Mickey Hart and issued in 1988 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways), the album includes music of celebration, triumph, gratitude to God (Allah), and commemoration of a bride and groom. In contrast to the first four Mattoki and Mahasi-style tracks featuring voice and drums alone, the fifth and sixth tracks in the Sa'ed Oena style feature a great variety of instruments including the supporting bass, tenor, and melodic alto variants of the mizmar (a reed instrument), tambura (a five-string lyre), tabla baladi (a double-sided stick drum), darabukka (a goblet-shaped drum), and tar (a single-skinned frame drum).
Babatunde Olatunji,
Drums of Passion: The Beat (HRT15005)
Drums of Passion: The Beat was written and co-produced (with Mickey Hart) by Nigerian artist Babatunde Olatunji (1937-2003) and features guests Brazilian percussionist Airto Moriera and Mexican-American rock guitarist
Carlos Santana. The album is Olatunji's tribute to the power of rhythm: "Rhythm is the soul of life. The whole universe revolves in rhythm." Olatunji performs on lead vocals, lead drum, and ngoma drums, and is accompanied by the talking drum, djembe, bembe, agogo, caxixi, sekere and others. Originally released in 1986 as Dance to the Beat of my Drum on Blue Heron Records,
Drums of Passion: The Beat was reissued in 1989 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Mickey Hart, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim, Dafos (HRT15006)
Dafos is a musical ethnography of an imaginary country created by Mickey Hart and Airto Moreira. The album was recorded live in San Francisco as a celebration of percussion music with the help of Jose
Lorenzo and his Brazilian percussion group Batucaje (featuring frequent Hart collaborator Babatunde Olatunji). Originally released in 1983 and later reissued as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways), the album was produced without the use of overdubs. The songs lead listeners on a journey across desserts and icecaps, through the fictional geography and mythology of Dafos, and features traditional Brazilian, Indonesian and African instruments, woodwinds and electric bass guitar.
The Rhythm Devils, The Apocalypse Now Sessions (HRT15007)
Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann were asked by director Francis Ford Coppola to provide a percussive underscore for his 1979 film Apocalypse Now. Combining the quiet sounds of tablas with harsher sounds of drumsets and demonstrating Hart's propensity for unusual time signatures, the album echoes the tones of war and death, and features extended tracks as well as tracks not included on the original LP release. Says Hart, "If you are paranoid, please don't listen to this music. It is dark... The music reaches out and grabs you. It is sad...and cats hate it." Originally released in 1980, The Apocalypse Now Sessions was reissued in its expanded form in 1991 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
The Latvian Women's Choir, Dzintars: Songs of
Amber (HRT15008)
This 1990 album features traditional and modern Latvian songs performed by Dzintars, Latvia's leading female choir. Consisting of 67 voices, two conductors, one piano, and one organ, Dzintars was founded in 1947, Dzintars: Songs of
Amber was their first and only U.S. release. "Dzintar" is the Latvian word for amber, a symbol of Latvian national identity representing beauty, openness and freedom. "The music is high, it's crystalline, and it makes me smile," said Mickey Hart, who co-produced the album with Jerry Garcia. In addition to Latvian selections, the album includes one Russian and three Yiddish folk song settings. Dzintars: Songs of
Amber was originally released in 1983 and was later reissued as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, Voices of the Rainforest (HRT15009)
Voices of the Rainforest is a recorded soundscape of a day in the life of the Kaluli people of Bosavi, Papua New Guinea. As the day progresses, one hears birds, water, insects and other ambient voices of the rainforest interspersed with Kaluli songs and instrumental sounds of work, leisure and ritual. The album was recorded with Mickey Hart's advanced field recording gear by anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Dr. Steven Feld. Feld's closeness to the Kaluli people afforded him a unique recording opportunity, and the quality of the recording equipment yielded among the clearest aural experiences of the rainforest short of being there. Voices of the Rainforest was issued in 1991 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, Honor The Earth Powwow: Songs of the Great Lakes Indians (HRT15010)
The powwow has become an opportunity for North American tribes to gather together to honor the earth and its creator in celebratory drumming, dancing and song. The Honor The Earth Powwow, featuring the Ojibway, Menominee and Winnebago tribes, is characteristic in that its repertoire includes traditional song styles as well as new songs written in traditional style. Recorded in July 1990 by Mickey Hart and Dr.
Thomas Vennum Jr., the music of the powwow consists of singers sitting in a circle in a drum arbor, beating on a single drum, and singing in high-pitched voices while elaborately-costumed dancers move clockwise around them. Among the album's new songs is "Ojibway Air Force Song", a song that came to an Ojibway tribe member in his sleep and was composed for his son who was serving overseas in the United States Air Force. Honor The Earth Powwow: Songs of the Great Lakes Indians was originally released in 1986 and later reissued as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Airto Moreira, The Other Side of This (HRT15011)
The Other Side of This was recorded at
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart's home studio in 1991. The album's 13 selections are inspired by the Afro-Brazilian traditions of Airto Moreira's heritage and take the listener on an aural tour of imaginary landscapes. The liner notes provide guided visualizations intended to transport the listener step-by-step through an array of emotions ranging from reflection to celebration. "The spirit body can travel to places that the material body cannot," says Moreira. "It is these places I speak of when I say 'the other side of this.'" The album features a variety of sounds including stomping, vocals, tree branches, surdo (a large Brazilian bass drum), shakers, cowbell, rattles, and bullroarer. The Other Side of This was issued in 1992 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, The
Spirit Cries:
Music from the Rainforests of South
America & the Caribbean (HRT15012)
For this first title of the Endangered
Music Project, Mickey Hart explored the vast repositories of the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center, sorting through hundreds of hours of tapes representing rainforest cultures of the New World. The album, originally released in 1993, represents musics of seven tribal cultures: the Garifune of Belize; the Choco Indians of Panama and Colombia; the Shipibo and the Ashaninka, both of Peru; the Aluku of French Guiana; the Wayana of Suriname, and the Maroons of Jamaica. The music is integrally connected to settings where healing, spiritual forces, and practical knowledge of the forest converge. The
Spirit Cries:
Music from the Rainforests of South
America & the Caribbean was issued in 1993 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists,
Music For The Gods: The Fahnestock South Sea Expedition: Indonesia (HRT15013)
Music For The Gods is the second release in the Endangered
Music Project, a series curated by
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart featuring material from the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center. This album captures the musical traditions of the Indonesian archipelago as it existed in 1941, when brothers Bruce and Sheridan Fahnestock recorded the indigenous musics of Bali, Java, Madura and Arjasa with (then) state-of-the-art Presto disc-cutters. The album preserves cultural traditions as they were prior to the westernization brought by WWII and presents a marked achievement in the restoration of deteriorating cellulose-acetate discs. Tracks feature the sweet and delicate sounds of the gambuh orchestra with its four bamboo flutes, the interlocking rhythms of the gamelan gong, the distinctive humming of the krejing harp, and vocal choruses performing ritual ceremonies with song and dance.
Music For The Gods: The Fahnestock South Sea Expedition: Indonesia was issued in 1994 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, American Warriors: Songs for Indian Veterans (HRT15014)
Featuring performances from six tribes -; Ojibway (Chippewa), Menominee, Blackfeet, Hochunk (Winnebago), Kiowa, and Lakota (Sioux) -; the 13 tracks on American Warriors document more than a century of Native American participation in warfare. Album producer and Smithsonian ethnomusicologist
Thomas Vennum, Jr. calls the collection "...a concept that was long overdue; a recording whose release would draw attention to the often overlooked participation of American Indians in the United States Armed Forces, and at the same time directly honor Indian veterans by helping to create a national memorial for them." The compilation of American Warriors was inspired by a 1994 Congressional mandate to create a memorial honoring Indian war veterans and was the recipient of the 1998 Native American Record of the Year at the Native American
Music Awards (NAMMY'S). Tracks include descriptive spoken introductions, protective war songs, and the ritual song, drumming, and dance styles of the powwow. American Warriors: Songs for Indian Veterans was issued in 1997 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, The Arthur S. Alberts Collection: More Tribal, Folk, and Cafe
Music of West Africa (HRT15016)
A musical exploration of West Africa from the late 1940s, this Endangered
Music Project compilation is comprised of 19 songs culled from an enormous archive by recordist Arthur S. Alberts. During a six-month, 4,000-mile jeep tour of West Africa in 1949, Alberts recorded a broad range of musics using state-of-the-art equipment (for the time). The album features popular music found in clubs and cafes, sacred songs, work songs, and school children's chants. This anthology, with its rich and varied styles of singing, percussion, hand-claps and other instruments, highlights the depth and diversity of West African music. The Arthur S. Alberts Collection: More Tribal, Folk, and Cafe
Music of West Africa was issued in 1998 as part of the Endangered
Music Project, a series curated by
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart featuring material from the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center(.)comma?(now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, Utom: Summoning the
Spirit (HRT15017)
Captured by ethnomusicologist Manolete Mora in 1995, this Endangered
Music Project release is a collection of field recordings documenting the music of the T'boli, a group of approximately 80,000 people living in small, scattered villages in the mountains and valleys of Southwestern Mindanao, Philippines. Summoning The
Spirit includes songs of celebration, a hymn dedicated to Lake Sebu (the T'boli's ancestral heartland), and the popular local song "Prized Banana" about the discontentment of a beautiful and ambitious young woman as she discovers all of her suitors' flaws. The utom melodies compiled on the album are performed on lute, bamboo zither (a neckless, stringed instrument), flute, fiddle, various forms of gong, mouth harp, percussion, and voice. Utom: Summoning the
Spirit was issued in 1997 as part of the Endangered
Music Project, a series curated by
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart featuring material from the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center,(now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, The Discoteca Collection: Missao de Pedquisas Folcloricas (HRT15018)
This Endangered
Music Project release is a collection of 1938-vintage field recordings culled from the library of the Discoteca Publica Municipal (Municipal Public Recordings Collection) in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The Discoteca dispatched a team to six states in northern and northeastern Brazil to document regional folklore, ritual music, and dance. The music they collected, much of which accompanied ritual, social, and dramatic dance, is primarily vocal, featuring various types of Brazilian percussion and strings. Tracks include liner notes written by ethnomusicologist
Morton Marks. The Discoteca Collection: Missao de Pedquisas Folcloricas was issued in 1997 as part of the Endangered
Music Project, a series curated by
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart featuring material from the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center, (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, L. H. Correa de Azevedo:
Music of Ceara and Minas Gerais (HRT15019)
This Endangered
Music Project album released was recorded in the early 1940s by Luiz Heitor Correa de Azevedo, a professor of music and composer from Rio de Janeiro, in north and central Brazil with recording equipment loaned to him by the Library of Congress. The songs on this collection, performed on shaker, wooden box, claps, strings, bell, friction drum, guitar and other instruments, documents the roots of the Brazilian music that would later enter the mainstream of world popular music. The album was produced by Mickey Hart and Alan Jabbour and includes liner notes by ethnomusicologist
Morton Marks. L.H. Correa de Azevedo:
Music of Ceara and Minas Gerais was issued in 1997 as part of the Endangered
Music Project, a series curated by
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart featuring material from the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center, (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, The Yoruba/Dahomean Collection:
Orishas Across The Ocean (HRT15020)
The 24 tracks featured on this Endangered
Music Project release are musical snapshots of Haitian vodou, Cuban santeria, Trinidadian shango, and Brazilian candomble rituals recorded between the late 1930s and the mid 1950s. Despite separation by hundreds of miles and differing colonial pasts, the Cubans, Brazilians, Haitians, and Trinidadians heard on this album all sing and drum to orishas (gods) stemming from the Yoruba and Dahomey religions of their West African ancestors brought to the Americas through the slave trade. The album was captured by prolific recordist
Laura Boulton and Afro-American scholars Melville Herskovits and Lydia Cabrera. The Yoruba/Dahomean Collection:
Orishas Across The Ocean was issued in 1997 as part of the Endangered
Music Project, a series curated by
Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart featuring material from the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center ,(now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Various Artists, Living Art, Sounding Spirit: The Bali Sessions (HRT15021)
In 1999, five years after releasing
Music for the Gods: The Fahnestock South Sea Expedition: Indonesia, Mickey Hart sought to record an album highlighting the more contemporary musical adaptations of Bali in Living Art, Sounding Spirit: The Bali Sessions. "I have geared this recording toward rarer ensembles and new compositions," says Hart, "omitting the most popular styles such as kebyar, since they have been often and well recorded elsewhere." The album features kecak (a vocal orchestral form characterized by interlocking voices),gamelan jegog (a little-known ensemble of large bamboo instruments popular in isolated villages of far-western Bali), and new styles kreasi baru and musik kontemporer (which incorporate both traditional and contemporary elements into pieces calling for peace and unity during in the throes of the late 1990s Asian financial crisis). Hart produced the three-disc set with the help of ethnomusicologist Frederic Lieberman, author of the liner notes. Living Art, Sounding Spirit: The Bali Sessions was issued in 1999 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Mickey Hart,
Music to be Born By (HRT15023)
This soothing, 70-minute soundscape, originally created for the birth of Mickey Hart's son Taro in 1983, was intended to transform the coldness of a hospital birthing room into a warm, rhythmic environment for the process of labor and birthing. However, after requests by several friends to use the album for their own birthing processes, Hart decided to release the recording for the general public. The music consists of Taro's heartbeat (recorded in utero) overdubbed with bass harmonics (provided by
Bobby Vega), drums, and wooden shakuhachi flute (played by Steve Douglas).
Music to be Born By was issued in 1988 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
The Gyuto Monks, Freedom Chants from the Roof of the World (HRT15024)
The Tibetan Buddhist Gyuto Monks produce polyphonic prayers for various purposes including blessings, the exorcising of human afflictions of anger, lust, and envy, and invocations of protector deities. Primarily recorded at the Lucasfilm's Skywalker Ranch sound studios during the Gyuto Monks' 1988 American tour, the album also features a tribute to the Gyuto Monks by Mickey Hart, Kitaro, and
Philip Glass recorded live at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Freedom Chants from the Roof of the World was issued in 1989 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
Zakir Hussain & Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Venu (HRT15025)
Venu is the ancient Sanskrit name for the bamboo flute that is today called bansuri. On this album, recorded live in 1974 at the Stone House in Fairfax, California, the bonsuri is played by Indian classical instrumentalist Hariprasad Chaurasia. Chaurasia is joined by tabla player Zakir Hussain, one of the world's leading virtuosos of Indian classical percussion and son of Alla Rakha (1919-2000), a tabla player best known for his long association with Ravi Shankar. Together, Chauraisia and Hussain express the intricacies and subtleties for which Indian music is renowned. Venu was issued in 1989 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
The Gyuto Monks, The Perfect
Jewel The Gyuto Monks offer excerpts from their most important chants, selected by the monastic order's chant master for their power and beauty. These multiphonic chants, passed down over generations by Tibetan monks, are not intended as entertainment, but for prayer. Excerpts include ceremonial chanting for exorcism and blessing, praise and evocation of deities, and meditation during which monks and nuns visualize themselves as deities in order to gain enlightenment. The chants feature a variety of sounds including solo and choir voice, drilbu (small bells), damaru (small drum), nga (large drum), kangling (short trumpets), dungchen (long trumpets), rolmo (horizontal cymbals), and silnyen (vertical cymbals). The Perfect
Jewel was recorded in 1995 and issued in 2002 as part of "THE WORLD" series (now part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways).
