2009: E Newsletter #7
August 14, 2009 - SWAIAThe Santa Fe Indian Market has never sounded better. In collaboration with long-time music partner Emergence Productions and a new partnership with the inimitable Canyon Records, the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA) is setting a new standard for its music programming at this year's Indian Market.
Visitors to the Indian Market will still be able to enjoy live music on the Plaza gazebo by local and national acts that represent the best of Native music and culture. Nevertheless, SWAIA has approached its music programming differently this year. Emergence Productions organized the music for Saturday, August 22 and Canyon Records arranged the music program, which features artists from its music label, for Sunday, August 23.
Both days of music will begin at 1:00 pm and conclude at 4:00 pm. The result will be a diverse selection of unparalleled entertainment that provides the soundtrack for the greatest Native arts market in the world.
Overall Schedule (Full Descriptions Follow)
Music Gazebo on the Santa Fe Plaza, Downtown Santa Fe
Saturday, August 22
1:00 pm - 1:20 pm Santa Fe Indian School Spoken Word Team
1:30 pm - 1:50 pm Celebrate Pueblo Showcase
2:00 pm - 2:20 pm Mathew Andrae
2:30 pm - 3:10 pm Joy Harjo & the Arrow Dynamics Band
3:20 pm - 4:00 pm Native Roots
Sunday, August 23
1:00pm-1:45pm R. Carlos Nakai
2:00pm-2:30pm Clark Tenakhongva
2:45pm-3:15pm Gabriel Ayala
3:30pm-4:00pm Aaron White and Anthony White
Emergence Productions
Emergence Productions specializes in Native American & Indigenous Performing Arts through event production, artist management, and youth cultural empowerment. An objective of emergence productions is to create opportunities for outstanding artists to connect with diverse audiences, both grass roots and mainstream, while simultaneously creating positive awareness of modern day Native America and empowering through performing arts!
Canyon Records
Canyon Records has recorded, produced, and distributed Native American music for 58 years, and is one of the oldest independent record labels (of any style of music) in existence. Canyon's catalog includes more than 400 traditional and contemporary recordings by native peoples from the United States, western Canada, and northwest Mexico. Canyon's catalog features numerous native musical genres: traditional tribal music, pow-wow (northern and southern varieties), Native American Church music (peyote ritual), Native American flute (contemporary and traditional), rock, alternative, folk, classical, and waila (also known as "chicken scratch"), a form of polka music from the Tohono O'odham of southern Arizona). Canyon has received two gold records (sales in excess of 500,000) for Canyon Trilogy and Earth Spirit by Native American flutist, R. Carlos Nakai, which are the only gold records for traditional Native American music. Canyon has received 26 Grammy® nominations, and won a 2001 Grammy® (Best Native American Album) for Bless the People by Verdell Primeaux and Johnny Mike. Additionally, Canyon has received numerous awards including Native American Music Awards (Nammys) and Association for Independent Music Awards (the Grammy® for independent record labels). Canyon was founded in 1951 by Ray and Mary Boley who had opened the first recording studio in Phoenix in 1948.
Saturday, August 22: Music Line Up
Produced by Emergence Productions and the Roots & Rhythms Performing Arts Program
Hosted by 2009-2010 Miss Indian World - Brook Grant (Hupa/Yurok/Karuk/Chippewa) from
Hoopa, California - USA
A member of the Hupa (Hoopa) Valley Tribe in Northern California, 23 year old Brooke Grant is also of Yurok, Karuk and Chippewa descent. She is the daughter of Lisa Marie Grant and the late Byron Lane Grant, Jr. and the granddaughter of both Byron Lane Grant, Sr. & Eileen Grant and Mike & Barbara Ferris, all of Hoopa, California. She has two younger sisters, Lindsay Rae and Barbara Eileen, of Sacramento, California. Currently, Brooke attends Mount St. Mary's College (Los Angeles, California) majoring in Political Science and will be in her senior year in fall 2009. She plans to pursue her Masters degree in Public Policy, focusing on a career as a lobbyist for Native American/Indigenous issues.
1:00 pm - 1:20 pm
Santa Fe Indian School Spoken Word Team
The Santa Fe Indian School Spoken Word Team is a nationally recognized group of high school student writers whose poetry incorporates Native American languages and philosophies. The award-winning team competes at both the local and national level and has individuals who have placed well at both levels. The team has recently competed in the Brave New Voices National Youth Poetry Slam Festival 2007, been featured in the New York Times and is currently being filmed by HBO for a series on teen poetry.
1:20 pm - 1:50 pm Celebrate Pueblo Showcase
Coordinated by Emergence Productions, "Celebrate Pueblo" brings members of the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico together to sing and dance. While the 19 Pueblos have individual feast days or celebrations, it is a unique and rare occasion for the Pueblos to unite in song and dance. "Celebrate Pueblo", is an initiative developed by Emmett "Shkeme" Garcia. Both Emmett and Melissa through Emergence Productions have brought the Pueblos together on three occasions.
2:00 pm - 2:20 pm Matthew Andrae
Imagine waking up to 15,000 new emails with 1000 new ones coming in every hour. The emails are from people you don't know who want to congratulate you, share their most personal emotions about your music and meet you in person. Among these thousands of emails are others who want to sign you to their record label, manage your career, schedule interviews, and book your act. The first thing you might think is that you are still dreaming. "I remember smiling in disbelief" says Matthew Andrae. What happened was an overnight leap from lounge singer to international recording artist. "Sweet Celine" garnered over half a million views in five days. Mathew's other videos have given him over 800,000 combined views. Matthew has signed a recording contract and is now set to launch a new album on the world stage. "In the past six months, I have been able to work with some of my musical heroes and make the album of my dreams. I am extraordinarily fortunate"
2:30 pm - 3:10 pm
Joy Harjo & the Arrow Dynamics Band
Joy Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is a member of the Mvskoke (Creek) Nation. Her seven books of poetry include She Had Some Horses, The Woman Who Fell From the Sky, and How We Became Human, New and Selected Poems. Her poetry has garnered many awards including a Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Award: the New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas; and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. She has released three award-winning CD's of original music and performances: Letter from the End of the Twentieth Century, Native Joy for Real, and She Had Some Horses. A song from her forthcoming CD, Winding Through the Milky Way, just won a New Mexico Music Award. She has received the Eagle Spirit Achievement Award for overall contributions in the arts, from the American Indian Film Festival and a US Artists Fellowship for 2009. She performs internationally solo and with her band Joy Harjo and the Arrow Dynamics Band (for which she sings and plays saxophone and flutes), and premiered a preview of her one-woman show, Wings of Night Sky, Wings of Morning Light at the Public Theater in NYC and will open at the Wells Fargo Theater in LA March 2009. She co-wrote the signature film of the National Museum of the American Indian, A Thousand Roads. She is a founding board member of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. Harjo writes a column "Comings and Goings" for her tribal newspaper, the Muscogee Nation News. She lives in Honolulu, Hawai'i where she is a member of the Hui Nalu Canoe Club and in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
3:20 pm - 4:00 pm
Native Roots
The 2008 double Native American Music Award winner for Group of Year and World Music Artist, Native Roots is a high energy pan-Native American Reggae band who have performed for communities and in prestigious venues across the U.S. With extensive radio play in Canada and the U.S., Native Roots is currently working on their 4th CD. Notable performances include: Kennedy Performing Arts Center, Bob Marley Reggae Festival, Sundance Film Festival and Al Gore's 07.07.07 "Live Earth."
Sunday, August 23 Music Line-Up
produced by Canyon Records
1:00 pm-1:45 pm
R. Carlos Nakai
Of Navajo-Ute heritage, R. Carlos Nakai is the world's premier performer of the Native American flute. He began his musical studies on the trumpet, but a car accident ruined his embouchure. Years later his musical interests took a turn when he was given a traditional cedar flute as a gift and challenged to master it. As an artist, he is an adventurer and risk taker, always giving his musical imagination free rein. Nakai is also an iconoclastic traditionalist who views his cultural heritage not only as a source and inspiration, but also a dynamic continuum of natural change, growth, and adaptation subject to the artist's expressive needs. Nakai's first album, Changes, was released by Canyon Records in 1983, and since then he has released over thirty-eight albums with Canyon plus additional albums and guest appearances on other labels. Nakai has developed a career as a classical soloist performing over twenty-five times with symphony orchestras. He joined opera veterans Isola Jones and Robert Breault as a lead soloist in a concert-opera, Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Roses by James DeMars which was recently released by Canyon Records. He was a featured soloist on the Philip Glass composition, Piano Concerto No.2: After Lewis and Clark. Nakai has received two gold records, sold over 4 million albums and received eight Grammy nominnations. 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.
2:00 pm-2:30 pm
Clark Tenakhongva
Clark Tenakhongva was born at Keams Canyon, Arizona in 1957 and hails from the village of Hoat 've'la (Hotevilla), "Place of Cedars", on Third Mesa. He is of the Rabbit and Tobacco clans, and spent his youth attending elementary and middle school on the Hopi reservation. After high school and college Clark joined the military and served in the U.S. Army for the next ten years. During his service, Clark married Ann Youvella, from Walpi Village on First Mesa. Together they have four children, Michael, Samuel, Carlene and SiMana. Clark passionately follows the tradition of the Hopi, participating extensively in the kiva and village ceremonies and other related cultural and spiritual activities. Clark has been actively involved in tribal government and is currently employed with the federal government in the office of Veterans' Outreach Services. Clark also hosts a radio show on Hopi radio KUYI that features Hopi songs, oral history, and winter story telling, all broadcasted in his native Hopi language. Clark's debut recording, "Hear My Song, Hear My Prayer", was a finalist for Best Traditional Recording at the 2005 Native American Music Awards. He is a two- time Indian Summer Music Award (ISMA) nominee. In 2006 "Hoat'Ve'La" was a nominee for Best Traditional Album and in 2008, "Po'li" was a finalist in the same category.
2:45 pm-3:15 pm
Gabriel Ayala
A member of the Yaqui people of southern Arizona, Gabriel Ayala is at the forefront of a new generation of Native Americans making a career performing classical music. He began playing the guitar as a child, and would later study with Philip Hii. He earned a Master's Degree in Music Performance from the University of Arizona in 1997, has taught at all educational levels from elementary through college, and serves as a competition adjudicator. Ayala performs regularly throughout the United States and has appeared at the Kennedy Center for the Arts, National Museum for the American Indian, ASU Kerr Cultural Center, and Meyer Theatre in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He has been recognized by the State of Arizona and Governor Janet Napolitano for his musical achievements and has been named a Tucson Citizen of the Month.
Ayala is a regular performer at the Gathering of Nations Pow-Wow in Albuquerque, bringing classical music to the Native American community at one of the largest pow-wows in the country. Ayala also maintains connection to his cultural roots through traditional singing and dancing. Ayala, his wife Juanita , and children Tomas and Deezdiin reside in Tucson, Arizona.
3:30 pm-4:00 pm
Aaron White and Anthony Wakeman
Aaron White, (singer, songwriter, composer, musician) is a man of contrasts. His heritage and his flutes tether to the ancient Navajo and Ute cultures, but he grew up in urban California so he plays a mean guitar. You'll find him playing everywhere from a presidential inaugural ball to a benefit concert at Arizona's San Francisco Peaks. Aaron has shared the stage with Jackson Brown, John Densmore of the Doors, Shawn Colvin, Lyle Lovett, Taj Mahal, Chaka Khan, Michael Nerad Walden, Jefferson Starship's Greg Chiquiso, Redbone, Bruce Cockburn and many others throughout his career. Aaron's group, Burning Sky received a Grammy nomination in 2004 for "Spirits in the Wind" in the Best Native American Music category. The group also won Group of the Year at the 2003 Native American Music Awards.
Of the Gunlake Band of Pottawatomi/Oglala Lakota, Anthony Wakeman has been playing the Native American flute for twelve years. Originally from Missoula, Montana, Anthony moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1994 and began an apprenticeship with his uncle David A. Montour, noted artist, musician and flutemaker. Throughput his musical life, Anthony has also collaborated with some of the most respected traditional and contemporary Native American musicians of today. He has also been a featured performer at resorts, art galleries and noted museums such as the Heard and Pueblo Grande museums in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2005, Anthony released his first album with Canyon Records entitled Butterfly Dreams. Inspired by the playfulness of his four-year old daughter dancing about, this album contains songs that inspire, tell a story, and illustrate the beauty of the solo flute. The album was a finalist for New Age Retailer's 2005 Narcissus Award. In 2007, Wakeman collaborated with Joe Jakob aka Mr. Soon on "Points of Origin". Wakeman also appears as a guest artist on "Harmony Nights" (CR 6416) with Alex Smith, Cheevers Toppah and Kit Landry, and "Night of the Northern Lights" (CR 6440 )with Jay and Tiinesha Begaye.