Mickey Hart Reflects On “Music To Be Born By”
Hart’s Son Taro Holds Record For Youngest Recording Artist
With the recent news of Jay-Z and Beyonce’s newborn daughter “Blue Ivy” grabbing the record for the youngest person to enter the Billboard charts on her Dad’s new single “Glory”, Mickey Hart reflects on his son Taro who holds the record for the youngest recording artist, 6 months in utero, on his father’s album “Music To Be Born By [1989]”, which was just re-released by Smithsonian Folkways as part of “The Mickey Hart Collection”. “The birthing process, one of life’s great mysteries, triggered a musical response in me. The sound from the fetal monitor included among a host of gurglings and bodily noises, the emerging heartbeat of my unborn son Taro. It was the sound of new life, and a startling rhythmic event—the inner orchestra of emerging life, the rhythm world of the body at its most essential. It compelled me to entrain with it, to create new, complementary rhythms. As a father, the repetitive pulsing became symphonic in my mind; it drove me into the studio to create a new composition incorporating my son’s living, developing, hopeful, amazing, unconscious, primordial music: Music To Be Born By.”
This soothing, 70-minute soundscape was intended to transform the coldness of a hospital birthing room into a warm, rhythmic environment for the process of labor and birthing. However, after requests by several friends to use the album for their own birthing processes, Hart decided to release the recording for the general public. The music consists of Taro’s heartbeat (recorded in utero) overdubbed with bass harmonics (provided by Bobby Vega), drums, and wooden shakuhachi flute (played by Steve Douglas). Music to be Born By was issued in 1989 as part of “THE WORLD” series and re-released as part of the Mickey Hart Collection made available by Smithsonian Folkways.
Mickey Hart is currently offering 10 free downloads from The Mickey Hart Collection on his website at http://www.mickeyhart.net/download.
Editor’s Note: In my other reality, I am a massge therapist at human touch massage and also was a massage educator for over a decade, and I can vouch for how healing this music is. I have used it in many sessions, and classes. I also know of many Birth Doula’s who use it in their practices. >^.^<
SAN FRANCISCO, CA– Fresh off the road from,a sold out 15 date tour Mickey Hart fans can tune in to the first in a series of videos featuring Mickey with George Lucas telling stories of their work together, the importance of sound in film, and the power of music.
“Episode One” finds George & Mickey “Back the Big Room” at Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch where Hart recorded the Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir and the Dzintars Latvian Choir.
The Mickey Hart Band will be back on the road in January for a short run of East Coast and West Coast dates. Glide Magazine gave their recent tours finale in Chicago rave reviews describing the show as “content that ranged from the most familiar of Deadhead classics to material culled, in part, from the far reaches of our solar system, Mickey Hart refuses to rest on his laurels and continues to expand music’s horizon.”
Hart and producer Ben Yonas (Zion I, Jazz Mafia) are currently finishing up his next solo album, slated for a Spring 2012 release. Fans will continue to get a sneak peaks of the new tunes at upcoming shows.
Mickey Hart Band 2012 Tour Dates
1/5/12 Bethlehem, PA- Arts Quest Center @ Steel Stacks Buy Tickets 1/6/12 Syracuse, NY – Wescott Theater Buy Tickets 1/7/12 White River Junction, VT – Tupelo Music Hall Buy Tickets 1/8/12 New York, NY- Highline Ballrom Buy Tickets 1/20/12 Grass Valley, CA – Center For The Arts Buy Tickets
1/21/12 Lake Tahoe, NV – Crystal Bay Club Buy Tickets
SAN FRANCISCO, CA– Fresh off the road from,a sold out 15 date tour Mickey Hart fans can tune in to the first in a series of videos featuring Mickey with George Lucas telling stories of their work together, the importance of sound in film, and the power of music.
