Omar Hakim emerged as a standout fusion drummer and in-demand session player whose contributions appear across numerous major jazz, pop, and R&B releases beginning in the early 1980s. Born in New York City in 1959, he took up drumming at age five and was already performing at ten alongside his father, swing trombonist Hasan Hakim, whose résumé included Duke Ellington and Count Basie; he also shared stages with childhood companion and later fusion luminary Marcus Miller. His first major opportunity arrived in 1980 with Carly Simon’s touring ensemble, after which he joined Weather Report in time for the 1982 album Record and contributed drums to David Bowie’s Let’s Dance during the singer’s return to the American pop charts. Hakim stayed with Weather Report through the band’s dissolution in 1985, and those prominent associations opened doors to further sessions, including Sting’s The Dream of the Blue Turtles and Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms.
Around the same period he began teaching himself drum-machine programming, which expanded his bookings as a pop, rock, and R&B session musician and brought him work with Madonna. He maintained an active jazz-fusion calendar throughout the 1980s and 1990s, recording with Miles Davis, David Sanborn, Roy Ayers, George Benson, Joe Sample, John Scofield, Lee Ritenour, and Najee among others. In 1989 Hakim issued his debut solo album, Rhythm Deep, which blended jazz, R&B, and pop elements while highlighting his singing; the project earned him a Grammy nomination.
Throughout the 1990s Hakim refined his command of electronic percussion and stayed current with emerging technologies, sustaining a busy session schedule that included albums by Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and Jewel along with other major pop artists. His jazz engagements gradually diminished by the middle of the decade. In 2000 he released his second solo album, The Groovesmith, which followed a comparable stylistic path and was produced entirely on his own Macintosh ProTools setup.
