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Mickey Hart - University of Ottawa, February 19 - 21, 2004


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Mickey Hart

Board of Trustees

American Folklife Center, "Save our Sounds"

Mickey Hart is best known for his nearly three decades as an integral part of an extraordinary expedition into the soul and spirit of music, disguised as the rock and roll band the Grateful Dead. As half of the percussion tandem known as the Rhythm Devils, Hart and Bill Kreutzmann transcended the conventions of rock drumming. Their extended polyrhythmic excursions were highlights of Grateful Dead shows, introducing the band's audience to an ever-growing arsenal of percussion instruments from around the world. Exposure to these exotic sounds fueled Hart's desire to learn about the various cultures that produced them.

His tireless study of the world's music led Hart to many great teachers and collaborators, including his partners in Planet Drum. Planet Drum's self-titled album not only hit #1 on the Billboard World Music Chart, remaining there for 26 weeks, it also received the Grammy for Best World Music Album in 1991-- the first Grammy ever awarded in this category. Planet Drum is one of twenty-nine recordings released on Hart's the WORLD series on Rykodisc Records. The WORLD offers a wide variety of music from virtually every corner of the globe with releases like Voices of the Rainforest from Papua, New Guinea and Living Art, Sounding Spirit: The Bali Sessions.

Hart's experiences have paved the way for unique opportunities beyond the music industry.He composed a major drum production performed by an assembly of 100 percussionists forthe opening ceremony of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games along with Zakir Hussain,Giovanni Hidalgo and Philip Glass. Additionally, Hart has composed scores, soundtracks and themes for movies, television, and home video including Gang Related, Hearts of Darkness, Apocalypse Now, The Twilight Zone, Vietnam: A Television History and The Next Step.

Hart's lifelong fascination with the history and mythology of music is documented in three books: Drumming at the Edge of Magic (written with Jay Stevens and Fredric Lieberman), Planet Drum (with Fredric Lieberman and D.A. Sonneborn) and his 1999 offering, Spirit into Sound: The Magic of Music (written with Fredric Lieberman). The three books are published by Grateful Dead Books. In August of 2000, an extensive exhibit of Hart's percussion collection, A Journey Into the Spirit of Percussion, opened at the San Francisco Airport Museum in the United Airlines Terminal.

Long a social activist, Hart appeared in August of 1991 before the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging, speaking on the healing value of drumming and rhythm on afflictions associated with aging. As a board member at the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function at Beth Abraham Hospital in New York City, Hart is continuing his investigation into the connection between healing and rhythm, and the neural basis of rhythm.

Recently Hart was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress where he heads up the sub-committee on the digitization and preservation of the Center's vast collections. This has evolved into "Save Our Sounds," a fund raising effort that will continue to develop in 2001. In October of 2000, the Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center conferred an honorary doctorate of humane letters upon Hart for his work in advancing the preservation of aural archives.

http://www.uottawa.ca/gsaed/conference2004/speakeng.html

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I remember when Weir was the guest speaker for Rainforest Action Network in the university at Ann Arbor in 92. Near the end of his speech he asked the audience if they had any questions for him and to put them on slips of paper and send them to the stage...he flipped through many of them before finding a question he would voice over the mike...

my friend who was working back stage with him got a hold of those slips after the seminar...

the vast majority of them were things like:

LAZY LIGHTNING!!!!! PLEASE!!

Truckin > The Other One

Born Cross eyed!

Lost Sailor for my birthday!!!

Brother Esau!!!!!!

ST STEPHEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEW POTATO CABOOSE!

and before going on stage he had a shot of Jack Daniels. My friend got the rest of the bottle after that one shot and we all drank it that night.

Good times!

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The web site is unclear. Some pages say the conference is for graduate students only, but the registration page for the lectures says something like "everyone in the Ottawa U community". So I'm hoping that as an alumni I can get in. But even if you don't/didn't go to Ottawa U, I'd still fill out the registration form for tickets. Would be awesome to have a gang of us there.

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