Global Drum Project

Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart was a pioneer in the world-music phenomenon. As far back as the '60s Hart began collaborating with the likes of Indian tabla master Zakir Hussain, leading to an ever-expanding exploration of music from far flung corners of the globe. In the early '90s Hart and Hussain put together an international cast of percussionists called Planet Drum whose subsequent recording garnered the first Grammy for World Music. Four of those participants have reassembled for Global Drum Project, a new album (Shout Factory), and tour that picks up where Planet Drum left off. It's essentially a summit of world-class percussionists with Hart, Hussain, Puerto Rican conguero Giovanni Hidalgo (whose credits include stints with Art Blakey and Dizzy Gillespie), and Nigerian talking-drums ace Sikiru Adepoju (who's played with juju kingpin Chief Ebenezer Obey, as well as Babatunde Olatunji's Drums of Passion). As on other Hart projects, the group plays what he calls deep drumming: taking ancient rhythms to places no groove has gone before, incorporating samples, and dabbling with the contemporary realm of trance.
Fri., Oct. 17, 8 p.m., 2008