Hamid Drake was born in 1955 in Monroe, Louisiana, and his family moved to Evanston, Illinois when he was a child, just as an older musician from Monroe named Fred Anderson also moved to Evanston, with his family. Hamid started playing with local rock and R&B bands, which eventually brought him to Fred Anderson‘s attention. Drake worked with Anderson from 1974 to 2010 including on Anderson‘s The Missing Link. At Fred Anderson’s workshops, Hamid met Douglas Ewart, George Lewis and other members of Chicago‘s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

Another of the most significant percussion influences on Drake, Ed Blackwell, dates from this period. Hamid‘s flowing rhythmic expressions and interest in the roots of the music drew like-minded musicians together into a performance and educational collective named the  Mandingo Griot Society, which combined traditional African music and narrative with distinctly American influences. Don Cherry, who Drake first met…