Now Shout Factory has re-issued all of these recordings under the title of The Mickey Hart Collection with each title for sale individually.

On Diga Rhythm Band we hear the most amazing combinations of rhythms. On each song, the various instruments' sounds are layered to create textures of music that go beyond what you would normally expect to hear from what are primarily percussion instruments. Take for example the fifth song on the disc, "Tal Mala" which translates as "Garland Of Rhythms." If you think about what a garland of flowers is like, a circle of flowers that, depending on the length, can either be worn like a crown or draped over ones shoulders like a necklace, that has neither a beginning or an end. Now imagine a series of rhythms laid out along those lines.

Now multiply that into garlands of various lengths for different instruments, and imagine them interwoven around one central point so that they are being played in relationship to each other and individually. It's like a complicated dance where each dancer has their own specific steps they have to follow that also interact with the steps being performed by the other dancers. If you were to imagine that each dance, or rhythmic pattern, were like the rings in a circle, with those in the center being the smallest and having to repeat most often, than you'll have a good idea of what happens with the music on this piece.

If I can stretch the analogy a little further, picture the dancers all wearing different colours, and moving in their patterns within and around each other. Now think of those colours in terms of sound, and you'll start to get an idea of how the sound on this piece works to create the effect it does.

While "Tal Mala" is probably the most ambitious of the five creations on Diga Rhythm Band, each of the other pieces has their own distinctive flavour. On "Happiness Is Drumming" for instance, Jerry Garcia's unique guitar sound is incorporated into a rhythmic pattern that both compliments and accentuates his playing. The song is by far the most Western sounding of any of the tracks. Gradually, the percussion seems to work its influence on the guitar here, until it begins to sound more like another percussion instrument than anything else.

Listening to this disc, thrity-two years after it was recorded, what is most amazing is how it doesn't sound the least bit dated. There is nothing on this recording to suggest it couldn't just as easily have been made last year as in 1976. Long before the term "World Music" entered into our lexicon of terms for music, Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, and the others involved in The Diga Rhythm Band had already discovered there was a great big world of music out there just waiting to be listened to by those willing to open their ears wide enough.