Ken Hyder
Ken Hyder is a Scottish jazz fusion drummer and percussionist born in Dundee, Scotland, perhaps best known for combining folk, ethnic and Celtic music with jazz.
Career
Hyder has worked with and recorded with many musicians, including Elton Dean, Chris Biscoe, Tim Hodgkinson, Paul Rogers, Maggie Nicols, Don Paterson, Mark Hewins and Frankie Armstrong.He has also worked with Dick Gaughan, Vladimir Rezitsky, Phil Minton, the Scottish Lindsay L. Cooper, Sainkho Namtchylak, Jo'burg Hawk, Marcio Mattos, Jim Dvorak, John Edwards, Dave Webster, John Rangecroft, Radik Tyulyush, Julian Bahula, Lucky Ranku, Larry Stabbins, Harry Beckett, Art Themen, Gary Windo, Pete McPhail, Keith Tippett, Harry Miller, Nick Evans, Raymond Macdonald, Ntshuks Bonga, Hamish Henderson, Jon Dobie, and Lello Colombo.
Hyder has been playing and composing music for over 40 years. In that time he has produced more than three dozen albums of original material. He began playing jazz in Scotland before moving south to London where he played at the Little Theatre Club at Garrick Yard, St Martin's Lane - an avant garde haunt, run by John Stevens.
In 1970, Hyder formed Talisker, and went on to make six albums with this pioneering and proto-type Celtic jazz group. In the 1970s, he began moving away from jazz and into collaborations with musicians from different musical backgrounds, including Irish, South African and South American players. Later, he became interested in exploring spiritual aspects of music with spiritual practitioners like Tibetan and Japanese Buddhist monks, and Siberian shamans.
Scotland and Siberia are now the strongest influences in his current work.
Hyder's projects include K-Space, with Tim Hodgkinson and Gendos Chamzyryn; Hoots and Roots with Scottish singer Maggie Nicols; RealTime with z'ev, Andy Knight and Scipio; Raz3 with Hodgkinson and Lu Edmonds; A revived Talisker, with Nicols and Raymond MacDonald, plus a duo with pianist Vladimir Miller.
Most of his recent releases are on Ad Hoc records, Ayler Records, and SLAM.
Hyder has published several books. Black Sky, White Sky is an e-book novel based on shamanism in Siberia. His second novel, Hack Attack, is about cyber crime and cyber terrorism. He has also published a memoir titled How to Know - Spirit Music - Crazy Wisdom, Shamanism and Trips to the Black Sky.
Discography
;Talisker- Dreaming of Glenisla
- Land of Stone
- The Last Battle
- The White Light
- Humanity
- Under the Influence
- Piping Hot
- Fanfare For Tomorrow
- Shams
- Burghan Interference: Shams
- The Goose
- The Crux of the Catalogue
- Golden Years of the Soviet New Jazz Vol 2
- Hot Sounds from the Arctic
- Roots Run Deep
- Binging It All Back Home
- Urban Ritual
- The Ultimate Gift
- Wheels Within Wheels
- Stillness in the Solovki
- The Known is in the Stone
- Bear Bones
- Going Up
- Infinity
- Black Sky
- Duets - Volume One
- Counting on Angels
- We See Us in the Next Future
- In the Shaman's Pocket
- Life and Death
- Ghost Time – z’ev, Andy Knight, Ken Hyder – Hinterzimmer Records
- Angel Ontalva and the Shamfonk Rhythm Section with Scipio mini-CD
- Talisker – with Paul Rogers, bass and Ted Emmett, trumpet
- Black Sky – K-Space – Setola di Maiale
- Cold Warm - with Vladimir Miller - Eastov Records
- Siberia Extreme - from a trio of singer Chyskyyrai, Tim Hodgkinson and Hyder.
- Spectrum - by La Dolce Visa, recorded in Sicily with Piero La Rocca.