Diga Rhythm Band -

The Diga Rhythm Band was an American percussion ensemble that released the 1976 album Diga on Round Records.

Members: Mickey Hart ([traps] drums, gongs, timbales, timpani), Jordan Amarantha (congas, bongos), Peter Carmichael (tabla), Aushim Chaudhuri (tabla), Vince Delgado (dumbek, tabla, talking drum), Tor Dietrichson (tabla), Zakir Hussain (tabla, [folk] drums, tar), Jim Loveless (marimba), Joy Shulman (tabla), Ray Spiegel (vibraphone), Arshad Syed (duggi tarang, nal)

Background

Diga Rhythm Band formed in April 1975 in the San Francisco Bay Area when Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart joined tabla player Zakir Hussain and members of the Tal Vadyum Rhythm Band, a percussion ensemble at the Ali Akbar College of Music (AACoM). Hussain, the son of Indian tabla master Alla Rakha, organized Tal Vadyum with advanced students at the college, which sarod player Ali Akbar Khan established in Berkeley in 1967 and relocated to Marin County the next year.

Hart met Rakha in 1967 and studied tabla the following year with Shankar Ghosh at AACoM. On September 20, 1968, Hart and fellow Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann joined Ghosh and dumbek player Vince Delgado for a percussion interlude at Berkeley Community Theater. In 1970, Rakha introduced Hart to Hussain, who played with the Indian-rock group Shanti on their self-titled 1971 Atlantic album and joined Hart for the 1972 Rolling Thunder sessions. In November 1974, Hart and Hussain co-produced Sarangi: The Music of India with sarangi player Sultan Khan at Stone House in Fairfax, California.

In 1971, Hussain assembled Tal Vadyum for quarterly AACoM performances. The ensemble received billing for an October 1, 1972 benefit at El Camino Park in Palo Alto. Hart subsequently joined the rehearsals and incorporated Western drums into percussion arrangements modeled on Balinese gamelan orchestras. The expanded group included conga and bongo player Jordan Amarantha, dumbek player Vince Delgado, marimbist Jim Loveless, vibraphonist Ray Spiegel, and percussionist Arshad Syed (duggi tarang, nal). The tabla section included Peter Carmichael, Aushim Chaudhuri, Tor Dietrichson, and Joy Shulman.

Hart played a rehearsal tape for Jefferson Starship singer Grace Slick, who invited the ensemble to open two concerts at Winterland in San Francisco. On May 16 and 17, 1975, the musicians appeared as Diga Rhythm Band on a bill with Jefferson Starship and the Sons of Champlin. Diga reunited with both acts on May 30 for a free concert in Golden Gate Park. Guitarist Jerry Garcia and Jefferson Starship bassist David Freiberg joined the ensemble for an instrumental version of “Fire on the Mountain.” Hart subsequently recorded the group over three months at The Barn, his Novato studio, for a debut album on Round Records with distribution through United Artists.

Discography:

Diga (1976)

Sources

Diga Rhythm Band — United Artists Promotional Biography. May 1976. Contemporary history of the 1968 percussion collaboration, Hussain and Hart, the Tal Vadyum ensemble, and the May 1975 concerts. (Grateful Dead Sources)
Diga — Grateful Dead Family Discography. Reproduces the Winter 1976 Round Records account, recording personnel, production credits, and initial release information. (Deaddisc)
Mickey Hart: Rhythm Devil. John Platt, Comstock Lode, No. 9, 1981. Firsthand account of the college musicians, rehearsals, Grace Slick invitation, Winterland appearances, and group size. (Grateful Dead Sources)
Zakir Hussain: Making Music, Part One. Ian Patterson. Hussain discusses Shanti, the introduction through Alla Rakha, and sessions for Hart’s Rolling Thunder. (All About Jazz)
Sarangi: The Music of India. Smithsonian Folkways recording history confirming the November 1974 Fairfax performance and the joint production credit for Hart and Hussain. (Smithsonian Folkways)
The School — Ali Akbar College of Music. Institutional history of the 1967 founding and 1968 relocation to Marin County. (Ali Akbar College of Music)
Palo Alto Rock Concerts 1970–73. Concert research identifying the October 1, 1972 Talvadyan Rhythm Band benefit billing at El Camino Park. (Rock Prosopography 101)
May 30, 1975: Jefferson Starship/Diga Rhythm Band. Corry Arnold, May 26, 2016. Research using contemporary concert listings, surviving tapes, and eyewitness evidence to reconstruct the Winterland and Golden Gate Park appearances. (Lost, Live, Dead)
Diga Rhythm Band. Mickey Hart’s account, excerpted from Drumming at the Edge of Magic, explaining the gamelan concept and the origin of the Diga name. (Whitegum)