Sadik Hakim

Who was Sadik Hakim?

Sadik Hakim was an American jazz pianist and composer.

Thornton was taught piano by his grandfather and started playing professionally about 1939. In 1944 he moved to New York City and was hired by Ben Webster. He participated in the emergence of bebop, sharing piano duties with Dizzy Gillespie on Charlie Parker's famous "Ko-Ko" session and recording with Dexter Gordon and Lester Young. Hakim is credited with co-writing Thelonious Monk's standard "Eronel" and is rumored to have written a few famous bop tunes credited to other composers. He adopted his Muslim name in 1947.

Hakim moved to Montreal after visiting in 1949 and was a big fish on the small bebop scene there, working with Louis Metcalf's International Band. However he was compelled to leave Canada following a drug bust in November 1950. Through the 1950s he worked in New York with James Moody and George Holmes Tate. He returned to Montreal from 1966 to 1976, leading bands and recording with Charlie Biddle. He led a few recording dates from 1976–1980 and cut an album with Sonny Stitt in 1978.