Hamid Drake

Hamid Drake, brillante, sensibile, infinitamente ritmico, intelligente, spirituale e potente batterista di Chicago. Nato a Monroe in Louisiana nel ‘55, la sua famiglia si trasferisce ad Evanston–Chicago qualche anno dopo,

proprio mentre un altro musicista, faceva lo stesso tragitto, con la propria di famiglia: Fred Anderson. Hamid si è immerso fin da adolescente nell’ascolto R&B e funk, di tutto il Motown, Stax e Atco.

Ha iniziato a suonare in rock and R&B bands, ancor giovanissimo, attirando l’attenzione di Fred Anderson col quale dal 1974 in poi si instaura una collaborazione professionale che diviene sempre più stabile. È lo stesso Fred Anderson che lo introduce presso Douglas Ewart, Gerge Lewis e gli altri componenti dell’AACM ( Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians). Le sue influenze musicali più significative per quanto riguarda le percussioni risalgono a quel periodo, ovvero ad Ed Blackwell, Adam Rudolph, Philly Joe Jones, Max Roach, Jo Jones.

Altro incontro fortunato è quello con Don Cherry da cui scaturirà un’altra avventura musicale duratura. Dopo aver conosciuto Don Cherry, Hamid ha viaggiato molto al suo seguito in Europa, occasione per dedicare più tempo all’esplorazione dell’infinito universo percussivo, condividendo profondamentecon Don Cherry il significato della spiritualità applicata alla musica e delle sue infinite possibilità di trasformazione ed evoluzione.

Negli anni è stato inventivo supporto ritmico di lungimiranti artisti tra cui Borah Bergman e Peter Brotzmann, con il quale ha suonato in quartetto con William Parker e Toshinori Kondo, Marylin Crispell, Pierre Dørge, il pianista compositore norvegese Georg Gräwe, Herbie Hancock, Misha Mengelberg, Pharoah Sanders, Wayne Shorter, Malachi Thompson, David Murray, Archie Shepp, Bill Laswell, Gigi, Herbie Hancock, Nicole Mitchell, Michel Portal, M. Zerang con cui celebra dal 1991 il Solstizio d’Inverno, Kent Kessler e Ken Vandermark nel DKV trio.

Negli ultimi anni nonostante i molteplici impegni di lavoro, dedica sempre più, parte della sua attività a progetti personali quali Bindu, Indigo trio (con Nicole Mitchell ed Harrison Bankhead) e collabora con alcuni tra i più interessanti musicisti del panorama europeo (P. Dunmall, Jan Bang, Erik Honorè, Eivind Aarset, Viktor Toth, Iva Bittova) italiano (Pasquale Mirra con cui ha un duo stabile dal 2008, Antonello Salis, Paolo Angeli e di recente Daniele Sepe).

Progetti

Duet Shabaka Hutchings + Hamid Drake

Ph. Arnis Kalninš

A few minutes into Shabaka Hutchings and Hamid Drake’s set the pair hit a series of abrupt pauses,  halting in momentary chasms of silence before restarting. They’re like inhalations of breath, as if the pair are slowly modulating our breathing to prepare us for the flow of sound they’re about to immerse us in. These fiendishly tight pauses also establish a seemingly telekinetic connection between the two, Hutchings, a London-based composer who leads Shabaka and The Ancestors and is a former member of the Comet Is Coming and Sons Of Kemet, and Drake, a veteran percussionist who’s played with everyone from Don Cherry to Herbie Hancock, have an instantaneous familiarity. Once that connection is tuned in, they enter a gorgeous flow state, one which has a surprisingly prominent amount of saxophone in it considering Hutchings’ recent focus on flutes. Here, he alternates between sax, a wide selection of flutes and onto shimmering electronics, situating the music on the line bridging Alice Coltrane to Pharoah Sanders (who Drake collaborated with) while deftly bypassing the cloying new age excesses artists working in that space can risk falling into. Drake’s drumming has the force and fluctuation of a waterfall, relentlessly tethered to the gravity of a groove but twisting and bending his playing to turn rhythms on their head. There’s a liquid instability, at points he drops abrupt changes of pace while never losing the forward flowing momentum, tempo changes arriving like bends in a river the music flows around. At the start most of the audience are sat on chairs or lying on the floor. By the end, when Drake moves to the front of the stage, playing a single drum and singing, a crowd is dancing, the floating quality of their music filtering into the audience and levitating the room.

Joan La Barbara, Seven Highlights From Skaņu Mežs Festival 2025

Trio Shabaka Hutchings + Hamid Drake + Majid Bekkas

HAMID DRAKE’S TURIYA: HONORING ALICE COLTRANE

NDOHO ANGE: dance, spoken words, THOMAS DE POURQUERY: sax and vocals, JAN BANG: electronics JAMIE SAFT: piano, keyboard, Fender r, PASQUALE MIRRA: vibraphone, percussions JOSHUA ABRAMS: double bass, guembri HAMID DRAKE: drums, percussion, vocals

“I was 16 when I met Alice Coltrane at a concert in Ravinia Park, outside of Chicago. We exchanged addresses and wrote to each other afterwards. Her creativity impacted a host of musicians and listeners. For myself it was and still is very powerful. She gifted me with a spiritual and aesthetic openess that I continually cherish. This project is my way of honoring the great being that enabled the teenager to continue on the path of discovery, wonderment and finding one’s own voice”

DKV Trio

Hamid Drake drums, Ken Vandermark (clarinet and tenor sax), Kent Kessler (bass)

Ancient to the future

Hamid Drake, Xhosa Cole, Ava Mendoza, Majid Bekkas

Indigenous Mind