R. Carlos Nakai

Last updated

R. Carlos Nakai
Carlos Nakai no concerto em Moscovo.jpg
Nakai playing in Moscow in 2012
Born (1946-04-16) April 16, 1946 (age 75)
Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
Occupation Native American flute player
Years active1982–present
Awards Grammy Award nominations
Website www.rcarlosnakai.com

Raymond Carlos Nakai (born April 16, 1946) is a Native American flutist of Navajo/Ute heritage. Nakai played brass instruments in high school and college, and auditioned for the Armed Forces School of Music after a two-year period in the United States Navy. He began playing a traditional Native American cedar flute after an accident left him unable to play the trumpet. Largely self-taught, he released his first album Changes in 1983, and afterward signed a contract with Canyon Records, who produced more than thirty of his albums in subsequent years. His music prominently features original compositions for the flute inspired by traditional Native American melodies. Nakai has collaborated with musicians William Eaton, Peter Kater, Philip Glass, Nawang Khechog, Paul Horn, and Keola Beamer. He has received 11 Grammy Award nominations for his albums.

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Raymond Carlos Nakai was born in Flagstaff, Arizona on April 16, 1946, to a family of Navajo and Ute descent. [1] [2] He now resides in Tucson, Arizona. [1] As a child he would audition tapes for a Navajo language radio show hosted by his parents; in doing so, he heard a recording of William Horn Cloud, a Lakota musician from the Pine Ridge Reservation, playing the flute. When he enrolled in a high school on the Colorado River Indian Reservation in Arizona, he sought to play the flute in the school band, but was assigned the cornet instead, which, he later said, he was less interested in. [3]

He began studying at Northern Arizona University in 1966, where he played brass instruments in the marching band. [4] As a second-year student, he was drafted into the United States Navy, and spent two years studying communications and electronics in Hawai'i and the south Pacific. He auditioned for the Royal Hawaiian Band, but was turned down as he was not Hawaiian himself. [3] [4] He continued to receive musical training while in the military. [2] He returned to the Navajo reservation in 1971, where he had a difficult period; several of his classmates had been killed in the Vietnam War. He passed the highly competitive auditions for the Armed Forces School of Music, and was 28th on the waiting list for admission. Playing with the Armed Forces Band became impossible after an auto accident damaged his mouth, making it impossible to produce the correct embouchure to continue playing brass instruments. [3] [5] [6]

Musical career

After his accident, Nakai had a brief struggle with drugs and alcohol. [3] In 1972 he was given a traditional cedar flute, which he gradually taught himself to play, going on to purchase an instrument from Oliver William Jones, a flute maker from California who Nakai met while working as a vendor at a museum. [3] [7] Jones would continue to supply Nakai with flutes for several years. [3] Nakai found it difficult to expand his repertoire due to the absence of recordings or scores for traditional flute music; he therefore began to learn vocal music, and adapted many traditional songs for the flute. [3] He returned to Northern Arizona University to earn a Bachelor's Degree in 1979 and later earned a master's degree in American Indian studies from the University of Arizona. [3] [6] He taught graphic art at a high school until 1983; his wife also worked as a teacher at the time. [3]

Nakai began recording his music on cassettes, and selling them on the Navajo Reservation. After a period of little success, he played his music during an exhibition at the Heard Museum, where a representative of Canyon Records bought one of his cassettes. His playing impressed the museum's administrators, who offered him a job; Nakai subsequently worked for the museum for three years. [3] [4] He recorded the album Changes in 1983, and sold it independently; soon afterward, he signed a contract with Canyon Records, who would release more than thirty of his recordings over the next decades. [2] [8] [9] By 2016, Nakai had recorded more than thirty commercial albums with Canyon records and several more with other producers, and had sold more than 3.5 million records. [2] [10] These recordings included several collaborations, including with the Japanese folk ensemble Wind Travelin' Band, the Philadelphia Orchestra's Israeli cellist Udi Bar-David, [5] guitarist William Eaton, American composer Philip Glass, Tibetan flutist Nawang Khechog, flutist Paul Horn, and slack key guitar player Keola Beamer. [1]

Genre and style

Nakai's music prominently features improvisations on the Native American cedar flute. He also plays the eagle-bone whistle, and uses synthesizers, chanting, and sounds from nature. Although he occasionally plays arrangements of traditional melodies, most of his music attempts to "[create] original compositions that capture the essence of his heritage in highly personalized ways." [1] [11] Nakai states: "I build upon the tribal context, while still retaining its essence. Much of what I do builds upon and expresses the environment and experience that I’m having at the moment." [5] His collaborations have included works produced with musicians of different genres, including jazz, western classical music, and traditional music from different parts of the world. [4] [5] Nakai also composed a few "light-hearted" orchestral works. [3] Although his music has been popular among enthusiasts of New Age music, he has disagreed with that categorization. [3]

Recognition and legacy

Many of Nakai's records have been critically and commercially successful. Two albums, Earth Spirit (1987) and Canyon Trilogy (1989), were certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America. [8] [9] [10] Music review website AllMusic called Canyon Trilogy"[elegant] in its simplicity", [12] and referred to Earth Spirit as "an outstanding CD from a soulful man." [13]

Nakai's 1995 collaboration with William Eaton, Feather, Stone, and Light, topped the New Age music album charts for 13 weeks, and was listed as a Billboard Critic's choice. [2] He has been nominated for the Grammy Award eleven times: first in 1993 for Ancestral Voices in the Best Traditional Folk Album category, and later eight times in the Best New Age Album category, and twice in the Best Native American Album category. [14] He has been described as one of the "most prolific and innovative artists" within his genre. [2]

Nakai developed a system of tablature notation, commonly known as Nakai tablature, that could be used to represent Native American music in a notation similar to that of Western classical music. It could be used across different flute types, as notes in it corresponded to intervals from the fundamental frequency of the flute, rather than to an absolute frequency. [15] [16]

Nakai was featured on the 1999 film Songkeepers, which depicted five Native American flute players — Nakai, Tom Mauchahty-Ware, Sonny Nevaquaya, Hawk Littlejohn, Kevin Locke — talking about their instruments and songs, and the role of the flute and its music in their tribes. [17] Nakai's 1985 composition Cycles was used by the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1988 as the music for its ballet Nightchant. [18] [19] [20] In 1993, Nakai played the flute as a soloist for the Phoenix Symphony's world premiere of a concerto for the ceder flute, composed by James DeMars. [19]

In 2005, Nakai was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame. [8] Nakai was awarded the Arizona Governor's Arts Award in 1992. [8] [20] He received an honorary doctorate from Northern Arizona University in 1994, [4] and the NAUAA Dwight Patterson (1934) Alumnus of the Year Award in 2001. [21] The Library of Congress has more than 30 of his recordings preserved in the American Folklife Center. [22]

Discography

Nakai's first album was released in 1983 by Canyon Records. He has since released forty other albums through Canyon and appeared as a guest on other labels. [23]

Publications

Related Research Articles

Indigenous music of North America

Indigenous music of North America, which includes American Indian music or Native American music, is the music that is used, created or performed by Indigenous peoples of North America, including Native Americans in the United States and Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Mexico, and other North American countries—especially traditional tribal music, such as Pueblo music and Inuit music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-Indianism and intertribal genres as well as distinct Native American subgenres of popular music including: rock, blues, hip hop, classical, film music, and reggae, as well as unique popular styles like chicken scratch and New Mexico music.

Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate American composer

Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate is a Chickasaw classical composer and pianist. His compositions are inspired by American Indian history and culture, and he makes use of traditional instruments.

Native American Music Awards

The Native American Music Awards are an awards program presented annually by Elbel Productions, Inc., The Native American Music Awards Inc., and The Native American Music Association, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated in 1998, which recognizes outstanding musical achievement in styles associated with Native Americans, predominantly in the United States and Canada. While Native American performers in a variety of genres are also recognized, nominees do have to be Native American or at least one member in a group or band from a State for Federally recognized tribe. The awards were created in 1998 to offer Native American musicians greater recognition from the American music industry and to create opportunities for international exposure and recognition.

Nawang Khechog Musical artist

Nawang Khechog is a Tibetan flute player and composer.

Native American flute Flute designed by Native American peoples

The Native American flute is a flute that is held in front of the player, has open finger holes, and has two chambers: one for collecting the breath of the player and a second chamber which creates sound. The player breathes into one end of the flute without the need for an embouchure. A block on the outside of the instrument directs the player's breath from the first chamber—called the slow air chamber—into the second chamber—called the sound chamber. The design of a sound hole at the proximal end of the sound chamber causes air from the player's breath to vibrate. This vibration causes a steady resonance of air pressure in the sound chamber that creates sound.

Mark Holland is a Native American flute musician from Missouri. He has a classical and jazz training and labels his music global chamber music.

Andrew Vasquez is a Native American flute player of the Apache Tribe of Oklahoma. He has released four albums to date, Vasquez, the award-winning Wind River, V3: An American Indian, and Togo, all released by Makoché Records.

Joanne Shenandoah is a Native American singer, composer and acoustic guitarist based in the United States. She is a citizen of the Oneida Indian Nation, Wolf can, based in New York. The Oneida are part of the Haudenosaunee. Her music is a combination of traditional songs and melodies with a blend of instrumentation.

Hawk Littlejohn is considered one of America's greatest contemporary Native American flute makers. At the time of his death, he was living in Old Fort, North Carolina, where he made his flutes and kept alive his native Cherokee traditions. His expertise in Native American medicine afforded him a position as adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's medical school, and as a cultural consultant for the Smithsonian Institution and the North Carolina Museum of History. He also wrote essays on Cherokee life, traditions, spirituality, and medicine in a column called "Good Medicine" for the Keetoowah Journal. An important aspect of Hawk's spirituality was his commitment to environmentalism and the connectedness of all life. The flute was his connection with the past and the future, and he combined historical and modern methods in its making. Like many flute makers, Hawk often used dead wood or scrap wood, especially due to the quality of wood in the wild and of old growth wood used in the old buildings. He used a modern lathe to shape the flute, but burned the holes in the traditional fashion with heated steel rods. His flutes are collected and played by flutists all over the world. Many flute makers find inspiration from Hawk Littlejohn's nature-themed symbolic flute designs and original hand-carved details.

Kevin Locke (musician) American musician, storyteller, and educator

Kevin Locke is of Dakota descent of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and Anishinaabe of White Earth. He is a preeminent player of the Native American flute, a traditional storyteller, cultural ambassador, recording artist and educator. He is best-known for his hoop dance, The Hoop of Life.

Sonny Nevaquaya was a Comanche flute player and maker from Oklahoma. He began his professional career in 1993 when he recorded an album entitled Spirit of the Flute. His second album, Viva Kokopelli was released in 1996. He has also released an album in honor of his father, Doc Tate Nevaquaya - Legend and Legacy. Nevaquaya lived in Florida until his death on February 27, 2019.

Robert Mirabal Musical artist

Robert Mirabal is a Pueblo musician and Native American flute player and maker from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.

Tom Mauchahty-Ware was a Kiowa-Comanche musician. He was known for his work playing the Native American flute, and has been a successful Indian dancer, and has sung in a popular blues band. He was also a skilled traditional artist: painting, sculpting, making flutes, bead working, and feather working. He was a descendant of the famous Kiowa flutist, Belo Cozad, and made two commercial recordings, Flute Songs of the Kiowa and Comanche (1978) and The Traditional and Contemporary Indian Flute of Tom Mauchahty Ware (1983).

Blackfire (American band)

Blackfire is a Native American punk rock group. Composed of three siblings: two brothers and a sister, their musical style is influenced by traditional Navajo Diné music and alternative rock, with political messages about government oppression and human rights. In 2012, members formed the band Sihasin.

Canyon Records of Phoenix, Arizona is a record label that has produced and distributed Native American music for 56 years. Canyon was founded in 1951 by Ray and Mary Boley, who had opened the first recording studio in Phoenix, Arizona Recording Productions, in 1948. The Boley's involvement with Native American music began when Ray was asked by the Phoenix Little Theater to record a Navajo singer named Ed Lee Natay. Boley was so taken with what he heard that he recorded a collection of songs titled Natay, Navajo Singer, an album still in active release.

Timothy Archambault is a Native American flutist, architect, and composer.

Charles Littleleaf Musical artist

Charles Littleleaf, a Native American flute player and flute maker, is a tribal member of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Oregon. Charles is also an honorary member of the Piikani Nation, Alberta, Canada, and is the son of the late Chief Jack Littleleaf of Brocket, Alberta.

William Eaton is a New Age guitarist and luthier, known for building unique instruments, particularly harp guitars. Eaton is currently the director of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. In 2015, Eaton was conferred the Governor of Arizona Arts Award. Eaton lives in Sedona, Arizona.

Indigenous metal is heavy metal music played by indigenous peoples of various colonized regions. Bands may play music from across the metal spectrum, though most center indigenous themes, stories, or instruments. Groups with indigenous members are sometimes considered to play indigenous metal regardless of the thematic content of their music.

This is a discography of Native American flute player R. Carlos Nakai.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Kohanov, Linda. "Artist Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved September 29, 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Wright-McLeod, Brian (January 30, 2018). The Encyclopedia of Native Music: More Than a Century of Recordings from Wax Cylinder to the Internet. University of Arizona Press. pp. 271–. ISBN   978-0-8165-3864-5.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Harris, Craig (April 11, 2016). Heartbeat, Warble, and the Electric Powwow: American Indian Music. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 25–38. ISBN   978-0-8061-5469-5.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Frank, Kathleen. "Celebrating Cultural Differences Through Music". Native American Cultural Center. Arizona Board of Regents. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Wein, Gail (April 8, 2009). "Native American Composers". NewMusicBox. New Music USA. Retrieved April 8, 2009.
  6. 1 2 Dennis, Yvonne Wakim; Hirschfelder, Arlene; Flynn, Shannon Rothenberger (April 18, 2016). Native American Almanac: More Than 50,000 Years of the Cultures and Histories of Indigenous Peoples. Visible Ink Press. p. 815. ISBN   978-1-57859-608-9.
  7. ↑ Conlon, Paula (2002). "The Native American Flute: Convergence and Collaboration as Exemplified by R. Carlos Nakai". The World of Music. 44 (1): 66. JSTOR   41699400.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Nakai, R Carlos. "Inductee Biography". Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on April 25, 2011. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  9. 1 2 "Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  10. 1 2 "Artist Profile". World Music Central. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  11. ↑ "Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  12. ↑ "Canyon Trilogy". AllMusic. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  13. ↑ "Earth Spirit". AllMusic. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  14. ↑ "R. Carlos Nakai". Grammys.com. November 19, 2019. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  15. ↑ Goss, Clint (2011). "Nakai Tablature the Native American Flute". Flutopedia. Retrieved December 15, 2011.
  16. ↑ Vames, John (2005). The Native American Flute: Understanding the Gift. molly moon arts & Publishing. ISBN   978-0-9740486-2-8.
  17. ↑ Joyce-Grendahl, Kathleen. "Songkeepers: A Video Review". worldflutes.org. Suffolk: International Native American Flute Association. Archived from the original on March 3, 2006. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  18. ↑ "R. Carlos Nakai". PBS. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  19. 1 2 "Cycles". AllMusic. Retrieved December 7, 2019.
  20. 1 2 Titon, Jeff Todd; Cooley, Timothy J.; Locke, David; McAllester, David P.; Rasmussen, Anne K. (February 12, 2008). Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples. Cengage Learning. pp. 80–. ISBN   978-1-111-79477-4.
  21. ↑ Nakai, R Carlos. "2001 Award Recipients". Northern Arizona University Office of Alumni Relations. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved April 5, 2013.
  22. ↑ Nakai, R Carlos. "R Carlos Nakai, All Items". Library of Congress. Retrieved March 20, 2013.
  23. ↑ "R. Carlos Nakai's Biography". December 23, 2015. Retrieved January 18, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.