Happy Birthday Mickey Hart: The Beam And Beyond

Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart celebrates his 73rd birthday today. Currently active with Dead & Company alongside his longtime Rhythm Devils partner Bill Kreutzmann, the innovative percussionist has long pushed the boundaries of sound, often incorporating or developing new technologies to further expand his sonic forms of expression. For Mickey’s birthday today, this week’s edition of Sunday Cinema focuses on his career-long interest in rhythm and making expressive sounds that connect with the listener.

Perhaps his best-known conception, Mickey’s inventive The Beam instrument was developed for the Francis Ford Coppola-directed acclaimed film Apocalypse Now. Later incorporated into his Grateful Dead setup along with The Beast, the pair of instruments became integral to the band’s exploratory“Drums”/”Space” nightly excursions. Mickey discusses his experience working on Apocalypse Now in this clip:

In the lead up to last summer’s Fare Thee Well – Celebrating 50 Years Of Grateful Dead concerts, PBS NewsHour profiled Hart. The video below also incorporates a previous PBS segment Mickey appeared in that showcased work he was doing with neuroscientists and astrophysicists regarding the brain’s response to music and digging deep into the origins of sound. Here’s the PBS profile:

This short clip checks in with Mickey from this year’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival. Hart showcases his current percussive set up for Dead & Company, once again showing off The Beam and Mallet Cat. He demonstrates a MIDI-triggered drum and talks about his role as a “rhythmist” in the video by Red Bull Music below:

Lastly, for a chance to see Mickey and Billy K in action, below is footage of a “Drums”/”Space” segment from the Grateful Dead’s concert at Oakland Auditorium on New Year’s Eve in 1981. See The Beam in action via Music Vault below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VSMM6O8E-I