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Diga Rhythm Band
Diga
(Shout! Factory)
First Appeared in The Music Box, May 2008, Volume 15, #5
Written by John Metzger
Wed May 21, 2008, 06:30 AM CDT
Although his solo debut Rolling Thunder was designed to fit within the
scope of the early ’70s music scene, it also made it readily apparent that
Mickey Hart’s obsession with rhythmic grooves ran deeper than that of the
average drummer. Initially inspired by Native American tribal beats and the
thumping sound of a hand-turned water pump, Hart’s intellectual curiosity grew
exponentially in the years that followed Rolling Thunder’s release, and
his hunger for knowledge about percussion and the art of drumming became almost
insatiable. In 1975, with the Grateful Dead on hiatus — at least from a touring
perspective — Hart teamed with Zakir Hussain’s Tal Vadya Rhythm Band, spurring
what soon became his career-long quest to study and link various cultures around
the globe through the spiritual heartbeats of their songs.
Hart and Hussain immediately changed the name of their outfit to the Diga
Rhythm Band, and the collective’s lone recording — the groundbreaking Diga,
which was issued the following summer — effectively introduced
percussion-driven, globally minded grooves to an entirely new audience. It also
was far ahead of its time. After all, it took another 15 years for the National
Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences to recognize this niche market, when it
named Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum its first album of the year in the
category of world music.
Without a doubt, Planet Drum was the realization of Hart and Hussain’s
unified vision, and not surprisingly, Diga is, in hindsight, a very
uneven affair. In making the endeavor, Hart never quite shed his rock ’n‘ roll
roots, and his contributions on a standard trap kit sometimes overpowered the
circular flow of the ensemble’s hypnotic propulsion. Its tracks, too, didn’t
quite fit together to form a cohesive whole. Instead, they played like
standalone pieces or incomplete song snippets. Although Diga hardly could
be considered tentative, the album most certainly was embryonic, though Hart and
Hussain did, on occasion, tuck moments of true inspiration inside their academic
pursuits.
Just as Diga’s song titles imply — Sweet Sixteen and
Magnificent Seven, among them — the idea was to fold rhythmic schemes and
cultural ideas together. Yet, often the feeling that is evoked is less
transcendent and more controlled and mathematical than Hart and Hussain likely
intended. Vibraphonist Ray Spiegel helped to guide the melodies along while
adding a jazzy flair to the proceedings, and at times — such as during the
conclusion to Magnificent Seven or the Arabic-shadings of Razooli
— it’s clear that Hart was expanding upon some of the same concepts that had
percolated through the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah. Guitarist Jerry
Garcia added ambient textures to the latter track, and with his slithering,
searching, serpentine leads, he significantly elevated Happiness Is Drumming
— a groove that eventually evolved into Fire on the Mountain.
If viewed from the perspective that it was the beginning rather than the end
of a journey, it’s much easier to see Diga’s charms. Still, Hussain and
Hart have since moved so far beyond what they demonstrated on the endeavor that
it’s hardly an essential component of either of their otherwise stellar cannons. 
Of Further Interest...
Art Blakey - Drum Suite
Mickey Hart / Zakir Hussain - Global Drum Project
Sanjay Mishra - Blue Incantation
Diga is available from Amazon.com.
To order, Click Here!
For Canadian orders, please
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For UK orders, please
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Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2008 The Music Box
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