Biography
During a pause in Grateful Dead commitments, percussionist and ethnomusicologist Mickey Hart teamed with tabla master Zakir Hussain—son of Alla Rakha, Ravi Shankar’s longtime accompanist—along with fellow students from the Ali Akbar College of Music to launch the percussion-heavy Diga Rhythm Band in 1975. The ensemble cut its only album, Diga, inside Hart’s barn-turned-studio in Novato, California, where the core eleven musicians were joined by Jerry Garcia on guitar and vocalists Jim McPherson, Kathy McDonald, and David Freiberg. One track from the sessions, “Happiness Is Drumming (Fire on the Mountain),” later became a recurring number in sets by the Grateful Dead, the Other Ones, and Hart’s Planet Drum project.
The collective had first assembled as the Tal Vadya Rhythm Band in 1973 and adopted the Diga name upon Hart’s entry two years afterward. Once the Grateful Dead regained momentum in 1976, Hart stepped away from the group, though he maintained an ongoing partnership with Hussain, a founding member of Planet Drum. Additional alumni who stayed active include tabla player Tor Dietrichson, who later secured a solo deal with Global Pacific, plus marimba specialist Jim Loveless, vibraphonist Ray Spiegel, and Arshad Syed on duggi tarang and nal; the latter three entered the world-music ensemble Ancient Future in 1993. Originally issued on Round Records, the Grateful Dead’s own imprint, Diga reached compact disc in 1983 through Rykodisc as part of a series of Hart-produced titles.
The collective had first assembled as the Tal Vadya Rhythm Band in 1973 and adopted the Diga name upon Hart’s entry two years afterward. Once the Grateful Dead regained momentum in 1976, Hart stepped away from the group, though he maintained an ongoing partnership with Hussain, a founding member of Planet Drum. Additional alumni who stayed active include tabla player Tor Dietrichson, who later secured a solo deal with Global Pacific, plus marimba specialist Jim Loveless, vibraphonist Ray Spiegel, and Arshad Syed on duggi tarang and nal; the latter three entered the world-music ensemble Ancient Future in 1993. Originally issued on Round Records, the Grateful Dead’s own imprint, Diga reached compact disc in 1983 through Rykodisc as part of a series of Hart-produced titles.