Omar Hakim leads his band tomorrow night at The Howard Theatre.

Before the digital revolution seeped into recording industry, making sequencers and synthesizers de rigueur for the rhythm tracks in most pop songs, producers and songwriters would call on session drummers to lay down the beats. Studio drummers still get steady work in places like Nashville, but the scene is not nearly as plentiful in places like L.A. or New York. Still, there was a time in the ’80s and ’90s when the best of the best would go to these places and earn a comfortable living going from studio to studio, cutting everything from top 40 hits to commercial jingles and movie soundtracks.

The musicians at the top of this field needed to have a specialized skill set that would allow producers, and the companies that hired them, to get the most bang for their buck. This included the ability to sight read music and play with consistency from take to take in any genre, as well as prodigious technique. From the 1980s into the ’90s, Omar Hakim was among the very top of this rarefied list.

“The great thing about jazz is that it trains you to be in the moment through art and improvisation,” Hakim said of his early days playing with is father and then later studies at New York’s “famed” High School of Performing Arts. “Commercial music takes a certain discipline to play simple but to infuse the music with life and complexity.”

Hakim came to prominence with latter iterations of Weather Report, the band that pioneered jazz’s fusion movement. In 1985, just after he had broken up with The Police, Sting tapped Hakim for his first solo album and tour. Hakim’s formidable list of credits goes on and on to include Madonna, Mariah Carey, David Bowie, Celine Dion, Dire Straits and a host of others. And you know “Get Lucky,” that Daft Punk single that was everywhere last year? You get one guess to name the drummer.

In recent years, Hakim has continued to play as a hired gun, but he has shifted his focus to more personal projects. He married keyboardist Rachel Z, a respected bandleader in her own right, and formed Trio of Oz with her. He also formed the Omar Hakim Experience, which will be performing tomorrow night at The Howard Theatre. The group is touring in support of its new album, We Are One.

“I’ve traveled all over the world and you get to experience music as the universal language for everyone,” said the 55-year old drummer. “It’s from that standpoint that the album got its name.”

In addition to Hakim and Rachel Z, tomorrow night’s band includes Chieli Minucci on guitar, Gregoire Maret on harmonica, Bobby Francheschini on woodwinds, bassist Jerry Brooks and keyboardist Scott Tibbs. Tibbs, in particular, played a key role in bringing We Are One to fruition. Hakim and Tibbs have been developing the material on and off since 2006.

“The process of creating is in itself a meditation,” Hakim said of composing the songs. “When you sit with your instrument, that process happens automatically. It’s about getting out of the way until the ideas come.”

The recording shifts between moments of technical prowess and tender melodies that are meant to evoke the cycle of life. Hakim spoke of the relationship between the music and the ideas that drove it in metaphysical terms. The songs on the album, down to their titles, are meant to reflect the journey of one’s soul through life. He also hopes the album captures his experience as a lifelong musician — he played his first paying gig at just 10-years old — who is not only drummer, but also a composer, producer and engineer. While tomorrow’s audience may not receive the music on all these levels, Hakim intends to make the listener an active participant.

“I’m hoping that we take them on a musical journey that is satisfying to them,” he said. “We’re really taking the time to have a conversation with ourselves and in turn the audience.”

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The Omar Hakim Experience performs at The Howard Theatre on Wednesday, March 12, 2014. 8 p.m. Tickets $15 in advance/$20 at the door.