Native American Flute Music

Native American flute music is the most popular genre within Native American music primarily because it has become popular with non-Native Americans who are a much larger population.  The Native American flute is a simple instrument, usually with five or six holes.  It was a limited scale and does not play the European system of well-tempered tuning.  Nonetheless, it has the capability of an entrancing and soothing sound that emulates the characteristics of the human voice.  In the early 1980s when the career of R. Carlos Nakai began, there were only two or three other Native American flutists.  Nakai’s music began to crossover into new markets and reach larger audiences.  Additionally, his music and his seminars on flute playing encouraged a new generation of Native Americans to pick up the flute as well as non-Native Americans to play the flute as professional musicians or as devoted amateurs.  Nakai began using the flute in other non-traditional genres like jazz, classical and with other ethnic artists which further encouraged other flutists to play the flute in non-traditional ways.

 

R. Carlos Nakai

Of Navajo-Ute heritage, R. Carlos Nakai is the world’s premier performer of the Native American flute.   Nakai’s first album, Changes, was released by Canyon Records in 1983, and since then he has released thirty-seven albums with Canyon plus additional albums and guest appearances on other labels.  In addition to his educational workshops and residencies, Nakai has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States, Europe, and Japan, and worked with Grammy® winning flutist Paul Horn, guitarist/luthier William Eaton, composer James DeMars, two-time Grammy® winning producer Billy Williams, among many others.  The famed American choreographer Martha Graham used Nakai's second album, Cycles, in her last work, Night Chant.  Nakai contributed music to the major motion pictures New World (New Line) and Geronimo (Columbia). He also founded the ethnic jazz ensemble, the R. Carlos Nakai Quartet, to explore the intersection of ethnic and jazz idioms.

Nakai brought the flute into the concert hall, performing with over fifteen symphony and chamber orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was a featured soloist on the Philip Glass composition, “Piano Concerto No. 2: After Lewis & Clark”, premiered by the Omaha Symphony, and a lead soloist along with tenor Robert Breault and mezzo-soprano Isola Jones, in the premiere of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Roses, an opera by James DeMars.

Nakai has also sought opportunities for cross-cultural collaborations. He performed extensively with theWind Travelin’ Band, a traditional Japanese ensemble from Kyoto which resulted in an album, Island of Bows.  Additional recordings with ethnic artists include In A Distant Place with Tibetan flutist and chanter Nawang Khechog, and Our Beloved Land with famed Hawaiian slack key guitarist and singer Keola Beamer.  Recently, Nakai released Voyagers with Philadelphia Orchestra cellist Udi Bar-David which blends Native American melodies with Jewish and Arabic songs.
       
Nakai has received two gold records (500,000 units sold) for Canyon Trilogy and Earth Spirit which are the first (and only) Native American recordings to earn this recognition.  He has sold over four million albums in the course of his career.  Grammy® nominations include Ancestral Voices (1994 Best Traditional Folk Album), Inner Voices and Inside Monument Valley (both for 2000 Best New Age Album), In A Distant Place (2001 Best New Age Album), Fourth World (2002 Best New Age Album), Sanctuary (2003 Best Native American Album),People of Peace (2004 Best New Age Album), and Reconnections (2007 Best Native American Album).  He has received eight Native American Music Awards.

A Navy veteran, Nakai earned a Master’s Degree in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona. He was awarded the Arizona Governor’s Arts Award in 1992, and an honorary doctorate from Northern Arizona University in 1994.  In 2005 Nakai was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.  Nakai has also authored a book, The Art of the Native American Flute, a guide to performing the traditional cedar flute.

 

Pow-Wow & Round Dance Music

Usually a weekend gathering, a pow-wow (Algonquian for “gathering”) features dancers in a variety of colorful outfits representing different aspects of Plains culture.  Dancers compete in different categories as well as participate in social and honor dances.  Pow-wows are held across the country and have become a pan-tribal experience.  Casinos will sponsor pow-wows providing significant promotion, prize money and appearance fees for singing groups. 

Northern-style pow-wow songs features men (very infrequently women) sitting around a horizontal hide drum (the size of a bass drum) which they will beat in unison as they sing in a brilliant, high falsetto, full voice.  New songs are made each year and the output of top song makers is always in demand.  Northern-style pow-wow is derived from the tribes of the northern Plains (Dakotas, Montana, Canada). Dance types range from grand entry to intertribal, traditional, flag, honor song, contest dances, jingle dress and round dance.

Southern-style pow-wow features men sitting around a horizontal hide drum which they will beat in unison. Southern-style singers sing in a faster tempo and lower range than Northern-style with women standing behind the men singing in a very high, keening accompaniment. Dance types are similar to Northern-style excepting the jingle dress.  Southern-style pow-wow songs are derived from the peoples of Oklahoma and lower Plains states.

Round Dances can be performed by at the pow-wow but can also be performed separately, notably at all night winter social gatherings (particularly among the Canadian peoples).  The Round Dance is a triple beat song performed by either an individual singer on a hand drum or by groups of singers each playing a hand drum. The Cree of Canada add a finger nail rub to the back of the drum between drum beats to create a syncopated rasping sound that helps accent the dance rhythms.

The Round Dance is a circle dance for communal dancing as well as courting music for couples.  Lyrics about love and courting and can be in Native languages or English. 

 

Native American Church Music & Healing Music

Music for peyote ritual of the Native American Church (which is a pan-tribal religion) involves intense singing with a continuous rapid beat on a water drum with rattle accompaniment.  Newer recordings have harmonized vocal tracks for a rich, choral sound.  A new style of Native American music was grown from the songs for the peyote ritual.  Healing songs are derived from peyote songs, but are performed without drum and rattle and at a slower tempo.  The songs are performed as soothingly as possible.  Overdubbing of multiple harmonies creates a soothing sound to enhance meditation and relaxation.

 

Traditional Treasures & Vintage Collection

Native American music from a wide variety of tribal traditions (mostly in the western U.S. and Canada, northwest Mexico) ranging from archival/historical recordings to modern renditions of traditional melodies.  Songs can be for ceremonial, honoring, social, courting, and healing purposes.  Can be sung with or without accompaniment (usually drum or rattle, sometimes European derived instruments like violin or flute), by groups or solo singers.  As various Native American communities maintain and foster their time-honored traditions, this music represents a living culture.  Albums usually include extensive explanatory notes and available pictures to improve educational value.

Twenty Traditional Treasures album are available as the Vintage Collection, a hardwood boxed set.

 

Waila (Chicken Scratch)

Waila (also known as chicken scratch) is the social dance music of the Sonoran desert peoples of Arizona.  European derived polka, two-step, cumbia and other dances performed on saxophone, accordion, electric guitars, electric bass, and drum kit (similar to Mexican norteño).  Earlier style (known as fiddle music) performed acoustically on fiddles, acoustic guitars, and snare drum.  Waila is derived from Spanish for dance (“bailé”) and nickname of “chicken scratch” derived from how dancers look when dancing on dirt.

 

Contemporary

Native American music also uses the latest musical styles to express artistic and cultural meaning.  Folk, rock, jazz and other contemporary styles are part of the Native American community.

 

New to Native American Music

If you’re new to Native American music and looking for recordings that will give you an excellent sampling of musical genres, try one of the Voices Across the Canyon series.  Each album includes representations of the genres discussed here.

 

Canyon Explorer Series

Since 1951 Canyon Records has specialized in the production of all varieties of Native American music from North America.  The Canyon Explorer Series features music from beyond Native America and focuses on three genres:  world (music from cultures outside North America) and classical (particularly featuring Native American artists), and new age.

Canyon Explorer: World presents ethnic music from outside North America with special emphasis on south Asia (particularly India, Nepal & Tibet).

Canyon Explorer: Classical presents classical music by Native American artists like R. Carlos Nakai and Gabriel Ayala who are at the forefront of a developing Native American presence in the world of classical music.

Canyon Explorer: New Age presents relaxing and atmospheric music by artists like harp guitarist drummer/percussionist WillIam Eaton, Will Clipman and flutist Peter Phippen