The names at the top of DownBeat Magazine’s Critics Poll are constantly
changing in most categories from year to year. But, in recent years, one name
has been stuck at the top in the percussion category: Hamid Drake. Whether he’s
playing a hand drum or a full set, Drake’s dexterity, subtlety, and precision
are aurally and visually thrilling.
Over the
decades, Drake has lent his talents to Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Herbie
Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Yusef Lateef, and dozens more. He is especially well
known for his work with cutting-edge, improvisational groups.
A master of
African and Indian rhythms, reggae and Latin beats, and much more, Drake will
be appearing in Karuna, a duo with another top percussionist and long-time
collaborator, Adam Rudolph, at the Bop Shop on Saturday.
As the Bop
Shop celebrates 30 years of concerts, it’s especially appropriate to have Drake
playing. In 1988 he was a member of the Pierre Dรธrge Quartet, the first group
to appear at the Bop Shop.
Growing up in Chicago, Drake got into
percussion by accident when, in grade school, he wanted to play in the stage
band. He had his eye on the trombone section, but there weren’t any trombones
left. The only open slots were playing the bass and snare drums, so Drake
reluctantly signed on.
“At first I
didn’t like it too much but as time went on a love affair occurred between the
drums and myself,” Drake says. “Years after that,
studying different percussive traditions from other parts of the world, the
flame was fanned even more.
“I began
realizing that the drum was one of the first instruments outside of the voice
and the flute, and there were so many amazing drumming traditions throughout
the planet, from India to Africa to Asia to Europe and so on.”
His skills
have taken him all over the world, but Drake still lives in his hometown, a
fertile ground for musicians. Chicago is well known for organizations like The
Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and progressive groups
like the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
“Chicago is
one of the centers of the improvised music world,” Drake says. “There are a lot
of artist- and musician-operated things here. It’s a little less competitive
than New York and the cost of living is better.”
Drake also says
he feels lucky to have grown up in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.
“It was an
amazing time socially and politically,” he says, “and the music and the arts in
general played a role in elevating political and social, even spiritual and
religious consciousness.”
Drake came of age playing rock ‘n’
roll and R&B in garage bands. As a teenager he admired drummers like
Zigaboo Modeliste of The Meters; Bernard Purdie, who played with soul greats
like Aretha Franklin; and Al Jackson Jr., Al Green’s drummer. He was fascinated
by big band drummers and jazz drummers like Shelly Manne, but he also admired
the way The Band’s Levon Helm could play and sing at the same time.
He feels
fortunate to have come along at a time when there was a lot of experimentation
going on in everything from folk music to jazz and was enamored of innovators
like Ornette Coleman.
Drake’s
horizons were expanded at Rose’s Records, a Chicago store with an extensive
international section and listening booths where he could sample the records.
“At first I
became very attracted by the covers,” Drake says, “and then you start listening
and it’s something you’ve never heard before. So you buy it and take it home
and check it out, and after a while it becomes part of your musical DNA. It
starts to affect you in an unconscious way.
“Then you
start to consciously explore as far as playing these instruments and discover
similarities and differences. Then you wonder, how can I incorporate this into
what I do, still maintaining the integrity of the tradition but also making it
my own? My curiosity just got piqued.”
Drake used
to collect drums in his travels but space got tight. He’s currently interested
in frame drums — wooden hoops with skin draped over them — from different
cultures. He’s acquired Turkish, Moroccan, Egyptian, Irish, Scottish, and Inuit
drums and various tambourines.
When Drake plays with Rudolph in
Karuna (the word means compassion in Buddhism), it looks and sounds like two
men having a conversation, only they’re communicating with drums. That doesn’t
surprise Drake.
“It’s just
an extension of the conversations we have all the time,” says Drake. “We have a
lot of philosophical discussions so when we get behind our instruments it’s
just a continuation.”
Drake and Rudolph
met at Frank’s drum shop in Chicago and started playing together when both were
14 years old.
“We came up
studying some of the same drumming traditions,” Drake says. The two musicians
played together in Mandingo Griot Society, the first group in the West to use
the Kora, a West African 21-string lute-bridge-harp, “and connect it with all
of the African traditions that were part of the diaspora: R&B, reggae, funk,
and stuff like that.”
Now a
leading proponent of drumming traditions, Drake feels fortunate and blessed to
be able to make a living through the art of percussion.
“You find it
all over the world, so if I can be associated with that I’m grateful,” he says.
“There’s a great Native American chief who said the drum is the heartbeat of
the universe. That can be taken on many levels. The number one drum that all
creatures have is the heart. The heartbeat is the drum that continues to play
and when it stops playing, that’s it.”
This article appears in May 2-8, 2018.
