Album Reviews

R. Carlos Nakai and Will Clipman Awaken the Musical Fire

Every once in a while I get one of those CDs that insists that I stop, be still and listen. Nothing could be truer of Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai’s and percussionist Will Clipman’s latest offering on the Canyon Records label. These longtime collaborators and Grammy nominees are revered masters in the respective fields and each possess prodigious musical careers.

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Awakening the Fire Review

Grammy-nominee musicians R. Carlos Nakai (Native American flute) and Will Clipman (drums & percussion) present Awakening the Fire, an instrumental fusion of African, Native American, and Asian musical traditions that draws heavily upon the inspirational power of percussive rhythm. Balance, harmony, and spiritual well-being are the core themes of this uplifting and inspirational album. Highly recommended, especially for connoisseurs of instrumental music that engages the senses and nourishes the soul.

~James A. Cox

Country Music: Side Roads from Wandering Educators

Radmilla Cody knows the American west, too: she is of the Dine, the Navajo. Her album Shi Keyah/Songs for the People is just that, a sharing of stories in song from the funny to the thoughtful. The songs were written by her uncle, Hernan Cody. Together, they offer a picture of life on tribal lands today and  its lasting connections with the past. Whether you understand Navajo or not (there are song notes in English in the album booklet), just listen first. The stories come clear, and so do the reasons Radmilla Cody is one of the best loved traditional style Navajo singers. Read full article

Celebrating Native American Music: Radmilla Cody and Tony Duncan

It is a season of the year when celebrations and gatherings invite us to look back ot history, to remember the first European settlers of the North American continent, and to think that they were met by people already living on the land. It is also a time, these days, when the world looks at the music of the American Indian, the First Peoples, as Native American Music Month is marked.

Radmilla Cody and Tony Duncan are Native musicians whose lives and music draw on places, images, and history of the of their heritage, looking toward history and living as well fully in the present day. Read More...

Tony Duncan - Earth Warrior

Tony Duncan
Earth Warrior
Canyon Records

Tony Duncan, of the Apache, Arikara, Hidatsa, and Mandan nations, is the flutist in the acclaimed Native ensemble Estun-Bah. On this wonderful, serene album, he is joined on several tracks by Estun-Bah’s guitarist, Darrin Yazzie, along with vocalists Toby Jose and Ryan Polequeptewa and the storytelling talents of Duncan’s father, Ken Duncan, Sr. (most tracks are instrumentals, though). Featuring a mixture of originals and traditional songs, the album showcases Tony Duncan’s mastery of the Native flute as his soulful, reflective meditations, sometimes accompanied by percussion, invite the listener to journey into the special origins of the instrument, which are explained in the liner notes.

Bill Binkelman
Retailing Insight

Fawn Wood - Iskwewak

Fawn Wood
Iskwewak: Songs of Indigenous Womanhood
Canyon Records

Fawn Wood’s Iskwewak celebrates the pride, strength, and spirit of indigenous women, with vocal tracks sung in Plains Cree, English, and vocables. Wood (who is Cree and Salish) composed some of the songs either alone or in collaboration with her father, Earl, or hand drummer and percussionist Dallas Waskahat, both of whom also composed some tracks solo. Wood’s voice rings forth loud and clear, singing of women’s trials (“No More,” “Mr. Wrong”), as well as their joys (“Mommy’s Little Guy,” “Pledging My Love”). While other vocalists are featured, principally Waskahat, it’s Wood’s evocative, soulful singing, and the deep feeling she infuses into each song that make the album truly special.

Bill Binkelman
Retailing Insight

Coyote Jump - Insight Retailing

Coyote Jump
Waking From the Roots
Canyon Records

Here is yet another recommended release on Canyon Records, one of their best in recent memory, this time by the duo Coyote Jump (composer/multi-instrumentalist Colin Farish and Native American flutist John-Carlos Perea). Waking From the Roots is a fascinating fusion of Native flute with many other elements—from strings to percussion to piano to guitar—yielding a complex yet inviting miasma of style and substance, somewhat similar to works from the William Eaton Ensemble but more dense and multifaceted. The liner notes detail what lies at the base of this fantastic music, as well as listing the other talented musicians who accompany Farish and Perea.

Bill Binkelman
Retailing Insight