Hamid Drake

Hamid Drake (born August 3, 1955) is an American jazz drummer and percussionist. He lives in Chicago, IL but spends a great deal of time touring worldwide.

By the close of the 1990s, Hamid Drake was widely regarded as one of the best percussionists in jazz and avant improvised music. Incorporating Afro-Cuban, Indian, and African percussion instruments and influence, in addition to using the standard trap set, Drake has collaborated extensively with top free jazz improvisers. Drake also has performed world music; by the late 70s, he was a member of Foday Musa Suso’s Mandingo Griot Society, Liof Munimula, the oldest free improvising ensemble in Chicago and has played reggae.

Drake has also worked with trumpeter Don Cherry, pianist Herbie Hancock, saxophonists like Pharoah Sanders, Fred Anderson, Archie Shepp or David Murray and bassists like Reggie Workman or William Parker (in a large number of lineups)

He studied drums extensively, including eastern and Caribbean styles, he also frequently plays without sticks, using his hands to develop subtly commanding undertones. His tabla playing is also notable for his subtlety and flair. Drake‘s questing nature and his interest in Caribbean percussion led to a deep involvement with reggae.

Hamid Drake credits two people as being very inspirational to his music and life on a deep and personal level. One is Fred Anderson who gave him the chance to deeply explore the world of creative expression. The other is his life-partner and best friend, Clay Chalupa, whose many years of encouragement continues to bring and to transform daily life into a much needed voice of healing and truth and joy.

Early life
Hamid Drake 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 family. Hamid started playing with local rock and R&B bands, which eventually brought him to Fred Anderson‘s attention. Drake has worked with Anderson from 1974 to the present day including on Anderson‘s 1979 The Missing Link. At Fred Anderson's workshops, a young Hamid met Douglas Ewart, George Lewis and other members of Chicago‘s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). Another of the most significant percussion influences on Drake, Ed Blackwell, dates from this period. Hamid‘s flowing rhythmic expressions and interest in the roots of the music drew 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 appearing on the group‘s first album. They have also played reggae.

Career
Don Cherry, who Drake first met in 1978 was another continuing collaborator. Drake he worked extensively with him from 1978 until Cherry‘s death in 1995. After meeting Don Cherry, Hamid Drake and fellow percussionist Adam Rudolph travelled with Don to Europe, where they explored the interior landscape of percussion and shared deeply in Mr. Cherry‘s grasp of music‘s spiritually infinite transformational possibilities.

Drake was one of the founders, along with Foday Musa Suso and Adam Rudolph, of The Mandingo Griot Society. His other frequent collaborators include New York bassist William Parker, saxophonist David Murray, composer and percussionist Adam Rudolph, German free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann and fellow drummer Michael Zerang. With percussionist Michael Zerang he performed a solstice celebration semiannually since 1991.

Now touring and recording all over the world and in constant demand everywhere, Hamid Drake has played and/or recorded with: Don Cherry, Pharoah Sanders, Fred Anderson, Herbie Hancock, Archie Shepp, bassist William Parker (in a large number of lineups), Reggie Workman, Yusef Lateef, Wayne Shorter, Bill Laswell, David Murray, Joe Morris, Evan Parker, Peter Brötzmann, Jim Pepper, Roy Campbell, Sabir Mateen, Rob Brown, Marilyn Crispell, Johnny Dyani, Dewey Redman, Joe McPhee, Adam Rudolph, Hassan Hakmoun, Joseph Jarman, George Lewis, John Tchicai and almost all the members of the AACM. These diverse artists all play in a broad range of musical settings which allows Drake to comfortably adapts to north and west African and Indian impulses as well as reggae and Latin. Although engaged as sideman, he is also devoting his energies and creativity as a band leader; focusing on his own groups and projects such as Bindu or Indigo Trio.

In recent years, Drake has frequently appeared with Jazz legend Archie Shepp in various configurations. The most common is the group Phat Jam along with human beat boxer and rapper Napoleon Maddox. Drake also works with Maddox in the Jazz hip Hop group ISWHAT?!. Drake performs with European jazz groups, recording with Hungarian musicians such as Viktor Tóth and Mihály Dresch, also releasing projects with Polish saxophonist Mat Walerian. In addition to the drum set, Drake performs on the frame drum, the tabla, and other hand drums.

Partial discography
As leader
 * Reggaeology (RogueArt, 2010)
 * Blissful (RogueArt, 2008)
 * Bindu (RogueArt, 2005)
 * Hu: Vibrational "Universal Mother (Soul Jazz)

with Fred Anderson
 * Anderson, Fred - Another Place
 * Anderson, Fred - Birdhouse
 * Anderson, Fred - Dark Day + Live in Verona
 * Anderson, Fred - The Missing Link
 * Anderson, Fred - The Milwaukee Tapes Vol. 1
 * Anderson, Fred - Live at the Velvet Lounge
 * Anderson, Fred et al - Live at the Velvet Lounge
 * Anderson, Fred 4tet - Live at the Velvet Lounge v.2
 * Anderson, Fred - On The Run
 * Anderson, Fred - Timeless: Live at the Velvet Lounge
 * Anderson/Crispell/Drake - Destiny
 * Anderson/Jordan/Parker/Drake - 2 Days in April
 * Anderson/Drake - Back Together Again
 * Anderson/Drake - From the River to the Ocean
 * Anderson/Parker/Drake - Blue Winter
 * Schweizer/Anderson/Drake - Willisau & Taktlos

with William Parker
 * Painter's Spring
 * O'Neal's Porch
 * Piercing the Veil (Aum Fidelity)
 * and William Danced
 * Raining On The Moon
 * Scrapbook
 * Sound Unity
 * First Communion/Piercing the Veil [LIVE] (Aum Fidelity)
 * Alphaville Suite (RogueArt)
 * Corn Meal Dance
 * Petit Oiseau
 * Double Sunrise Over Neptune
 * I Plan to Stay a Believer: The Inside Songs of Curtis Mayfield


 * Parker/Drake - First Communion
 * Parker/Drake - Piercing the Veil
 * Parker/Drake - Summer Snow
 * Parker/Morris/Drake - Eloping With The Sun
 * Organic Grooves [Parker/Drake] - Black Cherry
 * Jordan/Parker/Drake - Palm of Soul
 * Drake/Gahnold/Parker - The Last Dances
 * Campbell, Roy - Ethnic Stew and Brew

with Indigo Trio
 * The Ethiopian Princess Meets The Tantric Priest (RogueArt, 2011)
 * Anaya (RogueArt, 2009)
 * Live in Montreal (Greenleaf, 2007)

with Mandingo Griot Society
 * Mandingo Griot Society - Mandingo Griot Society
 * Mandingo Griot Society - Mighty Rhythm
 * Mandingo/Suso - Watto Sitta

with Adam Rudolph
 * Contemplations
 * 12 Arrows
 * Dream Garden

various duos
 * Drake/Mateen - Brothers Together
 * Drake/McPhee - Emancipation Proclamation
 * Drake/Tsahar - Live at Glenn Miller CafA©
 * Drake/Tsahar - Soul Bodies vol. 1
 * Drake/Zerang - Ask The Sun

with Herbie Hancock
 * Hancock, Herbie - Sound- System
 * Hancock/Suso - Jazz Africa

with David Murray
 * Murray, David - Gwotet
 * Murray, David - Live in Berlin
 * Murray, David - Waltz Again

with Albert Beger and William Parker
 * 2005 - Evolving Silence Vol.1 (Earsay's Jazz)
 * 2006 - Evolving Silence Vol.2 (Earsay's Jazz)

with Chicago Trio
 * Velvet Song (RogueArt, 2011)

with Peter Brotzmann
 * Brötzmann/Drake - The Dried Rat- Dog
 * Brötzmann/Drake - Brötzmann/Drake
 * Brötzmann/Kessler/Drake - Live at the Empty Bottle
 * Brötzmann/Gania/Drake - The “WELS” Concert
 * Brötzmann/Kondo/Parker/Drake - Die Like A Dog
 * Brötzmann/Parker/Drake - Never Too Late But Always Too Early
 * Brötzmann Chicago Tentet - Broken English
 * Brötzmann Chicago Octet/Tentet - The Chicago Octet/Tentet
 * Brötzmann Chicago Tentet - Images
 * Brötzmann Chicago Tentet - Short Visit To Nowhere
 * Brötzmann Chicago Tentet - Signs
 * Brötzmann Chicago Tentet - Stone/Water
 * Brötzmann/Die Like a Dog - Aoyama Crows
 * Brötzmann/Die Like a Dog - Close Up
 * Brötzmann/Die Like a Dog - From Valley to Valley
 * Brötzmann/Die Like a Dog - Little Birds Have Fast Hearts No. 1
 * Brötzmann/Die Like a Dog - Little Birds Have Fast Hearts No. 2
 * Parker/Brötzmann - The Bishop’s Move
 * Drake/Brötzmann/Hopkins - The Atlanta Concert

with Rob Brown
 * Brown, Rob - The Big Picture

with IsWhat?!
 * 2004 - You Figure It Out (Hyena)
 * 2006 - The Life We Chose (Hyena)

with Painkiller
 * 2003 - "50th Birthday Celebration Volume 12"

with Scott Fields
 * 1997 - Five Frozen Eggs (Music & Arts)
 * 1999 - Dénouement (Clean Feed Records)

with Beans
 * 2006 Only (with William Parker)

with Yakuza
 * 2007 - Transmutations (Prosthetic)