" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis. That's a name I know. So, I'll pick one of these albums." At the time you know that CD selections were pretty ample. So, and Miles having huge discography, there were about 20 CDs I could choose from. I chose one called Kind of Blue. I took it home, listened to it, and loved it and kept listening, kept listening. Then just started buying books on improvisation and started going on my CD collection. Loving it, and then a couple of years later, my best friend's family had a family band. I was playing with them on the weekend. So, every weekend in high school, I was playing gigs around Missouri—just a little casual gigs. By the time I was in high school, I was performing a lot and pretty dedicated to the instrument. And I would say by then I ... It wasn't really a question of deciding, I was like, "This is what I'm doing."

AAJ: Sure. I know you compose and perform. Do you bring Eritrean music and instruments into your performances?

HM: So, it's funny that, the thing about Eritrean music is I grew up listening to it with my parents and going to Eritrean community parties and family events. I didn't listen on my own time. I was listening to other music. I mean, I was into mostly mainstream music at one point, and then when I got into jazz, I only listened to jazz. Pretty much like I shut everything out through college, until the end of college. And then I kind of started going back to the other music that I neglected and didn't listen to for a while. And in terms of Eritrean music, I only recently,—actually, it was during the pandemic in 2020, during my second album as a leader, where I had introduced this Eritrean music into my music with one song in particular called "Eritrea." And I had decided in this moment of reflection time, I was in the middle of the countryside in France for about three months. And so it was really a reflective time, and I was thinking about my past, my parents, my heritage, all this stuff. And I found it funny as I had never ever incorporated this music as part of my history, part of my childhood, as well. And so I went deep into it as I never even studied this music, as a learned musician who knows theory and all this stuff. So I went deep and I studied the history of it, I transcribed a bunch of music and better understood the roles of all the instruments. And then I composed and incorporated it. Then my latest album is Asmara, which is completely dedicated to this music—mixing it with jazz, that is.

AAJ: What are some of the characteristics of Eritrean music?

HM: I can loosely say that for instance, harmonically, it's very simple. It tends to be major usually and use mostly pentatonics. Rhythmically, it's interesting, it's got this almost triplety thing that is trance like. And it's mostly danceable tempos, 'cause it's mostly meant to be danced to. Form-wise, it can be all over the place. And often, for instance, it's very... Often, it's not instrumental, it's usually vocal. And there are horns that are used in the music, generally, and they act usually as responses to the vocal parts. And then one of the big things that you'll always almost hear is an instrument called the krar, which is a four-string instrument.

AAJ: I know you do a fair amount of touring outside of the United States. How did that come about? Is that intentional or do you find that there's just more work outside of the US, France, and other places, China, where you perform?

HM: Well, I've been touring Europe since 2010. I should say, actually, I've been playing in Europe since 2010. I've been, I guess you don't know, I live in Paris. So I'm based in Paris as of the end of 2016. And, yeah, I had started having opportunities in Europe and I decided, well, this is where all, at least most of the American musicians who are making a living performing are doing it in Europe, whether they live in Europe or not. So I said, I might as well go and do it from here and open more doors. There are a lot of opportunities to perform all over Europe. And I do of course, as mentioned, go to Asia sometimes. And more recently I've been able to go to Africa, which is cool. But I go back and play the states all the time.

AAJ: What is the instrumentation of your group and do you use the same musicians as you tour?

HM: It depends. So as a leader, 'cause I play as both as a leader and a sideman. And I'm called all the time as a sideman. So it's mostly me making time to set up my tours and, as a leader. And it depends on which project I'm touring. So if I'm touring, my most recent project, it's usually a quartet and it's going to be... I tour very often with