Nortec Collective - Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Tijuana Sound Machine
Category: Music
Nortec Collective
Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Tijuana Sound Machine
I get to hear the innovative work of many musicians similar to the Nortec Collective but those works just aren't as much fun as Tijuana Sound Machine.Working from ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Tijuana they are Kraftwerk gone Latin.Their latest release puts together "A combination of Norténo ("from the North") and Techno, documenting the collision between the style and culture of electronica and traditional northern Mexican music."
Nortec Collective is Bostich (Ramon Amezcua), Clorofila (Jorge Verdon), Fussible (Pepe Mogt), Hiperboreal (Pedro Gabriel Beas) all of whom also work on other musical projects are into something that is primal and cultural.These artists create a unique musical blend that sets them apart.Their CD Tijuana Sessions, Vol. 3 was nominated for two Latin Grammys.
"In cities like Tijuana, you can find Norténo trios performing in restaurants; they wear cowboy hats, boots, and big belt buckles, and usually carry a guitar, an accordian and a huge bass called a Tololoche." In order to understand it you would really need to dig deep into the progression of how Bohemian and Czech immigrants brought the German polka south of the border to Sinaloa, Mexico.That's another review.
The CD Tijuana Sound Machine starts off with a song titled The Clap with a funky down home polka feel to it, I can see the men in their boots and Stetsons, their women in those low cut frilly flowing dresses swirling into their two step moves.It is perhaps an ode to that pernicious STD.
Just when everything hurts, I'm exhausted and thirsty, the third song on the CD, The Brown Bike re-energizes me and the singer sings, "It's funny how things work out when you want 'em to work out right." and "I rode and I rode and I rode and I didn't stop for lights."
The title song, Tijuana Sound Machine swings its way across my mindscape and features a hook that will hook you right out onto the dance floor.
In a certain sense, the song"Shake It Up!" is a real rocker.There's a rockin' jam goin' on here and features a thundering rhythm section that's sure to get you tappin' your feet.
This music is steeped with a multiplicity of syncopated rhythmic patterns and the traditional minor seventh, minor ninth chord structures that are so prevalent in Latin music are blended way down into the fabric of each song.They're not obvious but they're there.This CD includes vocals and wind instruments, trumpet and tuba and is totally consistent with the Norteño music that originally came out of northern Mexico.
I absolutely love the use of the tuba in the song Mi Casita (Little House).This song is so much fun, there's a dance goin' on in my soul and there's such joy in my heart, I smile to myself, the tuba solo just blows my mind.
I ride diggin' the trac Mama Loves Nortec as I cut through the MedicalSchool plaza proceed to roll on down East River Road.The trumpet solo elevates me and the rhythm is driven over jukebox edge.This song is a bicycle rider's pump rhythm and it pushes and it pushes hard.This song will make any dancer sweat and hop...:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Still more tuba on the song Ciruela Electrica or Electric Plum which means, what?
The song Jacinto features a very nice guitar hook with some absolutely beautiful accordion playing.Something here a little bit more romantic than the dance material that dominates the CD, Tijuana Sound Machine.
The second to the last trac Reten is something of a Beatlesque painting with sound.Somehow it sounds a little like the ticking of a wall clock on the wall of the Yellow Submarine.
Straight on through to the end of the CD, the rhythm, the accordion, the decidedly electronic sound of it, moves me and I cross the bridge on my way to the safety of my office, hot shower, hot bowl of oat meal.We are riding the wind.I am the wind.
Harmony Nights - Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Native American Vocal Harmony
Category: Music
Harmony Nights
Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Native American Vocal Harmony
Call me rezz dogg.Thanks to the i-pod technology, I write this stuff while I ride.Not the physical act of writing but the spiritual act involved in a piece. Living in the moment is probably as close as I get to"spiritual".
Cheevers/Toppah, and Landry have released an outstanding Native American Vocal Harmony CD that is made up of traditional type vocable songs harmonized.Alex E. Smith (Pawnee/Sauk & Fox), Cheevers Toppah (Kiowa/Navajo), and Kit Landry (Ojibwe) sing a harmony that brings me instantly into the dream world of this morning in brilliant golden moments before the sun rises.
The song Dookóósliid featuring the lead vocal of guest artist Louie Gonnie (Diné) grabs my attention as I burn it hard down Minnehaha Boulevard.The song is hot and intense, sung with passion it's a wonderful cut.
In the liner notes it says, " their (Smith, Toppah) debut recording "Intonation" was nominated for multiple awards and was a finalist at the 2005 Grammy awards in the category of Best Native American Album."Smith and Toppah have forged "an unprecedented vocal sound blending Southern plains Pow Wow singing with choral hymnody."This is Grammy Award level performance singing with great production values.Up to the usual Canyon Records standard of excellence.
The song Saturday Night is next and it makes me feel like a Saturday Night and the excitement that comes from heading to the '49 to feel whole again.The song features the flute playing of Anthony Wakeman (Gunlake Band of Pottawatomi/Oglala Lakota).
A tearful pleading of a song titled, Leavin' Me follows.The song says, "If I had known that you were leavin' me, I would have told you, they just don't know, they just don't see, please my baby, I don't want you to leave me."
Never Too Far, an interesting sentiment about never being too far away.There is intelligence in the song sequence.I find it interesting that the Harmony Nights CD they is classified as an experimental genre as in my dream eye I can see this sound is as ancient as the earth I walk on.What I hear in my head is a dream.
On this CD Ms. Landry, Ojibwe from the Whitefish Lake First Nation, Ontario, Canada, whose beautiful, sinewy soprano vocal provides the Baritone/Tenor voices of the men with balance.Perfect.Riding bike is all rhythm and balance.This is as peaceful as I've ever felt at the start of a ride.
I ride on into the windy morning straight on through the Uptown area back by LakeCalhoun and Lake of the Isles, I ride on dodging traffic through down town Minneapolis oblivious to the stench of civilization in the air and the gray black dirt of this city.
The Native American Vocal Harmony Group, Smith/Toppah/Landry, in their CD Harmony Nights have discovered something fundamental about music.They have worked and sung together, they have the cohesiveness that you expect of vocal harmony.
The song Never Too Far is a distinctly Native melody with moving modulations in the key signature and it's sung in English making the sentiment easily understood by us urban rats that don't speak it.
The CD ends with the song Takin' It Back.Now here's a sentiment that easily translates in any language.But I look around and think, "Takin' It Back?"Hah.You can keep this nasty piece of the rock.Although, I hear Smith/Toppah/Landry and commend them on their activist stance.One-day baby.One day.The song features the award winning drum circle, Thunder Hill, backing them with strong traditional drumming and singing.
Once again Canyon Records has given me a spiritual epiphany as the sun breaks up over the horizon in scarlet and gold.I just keep riding.
Indigenous in Music Artist of the Month
Category: Music
Indigenous in Music is a variety of Indigenous Musicians and their Music Businesses! Representing every country in our western hemisphere! From Greenland to Argentina...
Art Neopoleon - Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Songs For Learning Cree
Category: Music
Art Napoleon
Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Songs For Learning Cree
"Mocikan – Songs for learning Cree" is a fun collection of studio and field recordings to support the learning of the Nihiyaw (Cree) language 'Y' dialect, spoken throughout much of Alberta, Saskatchewan and parts of Northeastern BC. Included in this diverse audio collage are language lessons, stories, community field recordings and sing-along songs for the young at heart performed by Art Napoleon and his friends and family. Listening to and repeating these songs and words will help listeners with their vocabulary and pronunciation of the Cree language." This is how it is said in the liner notes.
The CD begins with a nice flute intro with the reverb on. Spoken in English the narrator emphasizes how much fun it can be to learn a language.
It immediately moves into an Animal Song and Art Napoleon sings the song. The song is a story about how a little boy asks four animals where they are going and they answer with their habitat. Goose to the South, Moose into the forest, Fish into the lake, and the Eagle into the sky.
Next is an Animal Word lesson that teaches several various words for common animals with a class of children engaged in the lesson follows the animal song.
We move easily into the Bannock Boogie and Art blows his harp with a rhythm section, bass and drums. This song rocks hard baby. The children's choir adds a dimension of spontaneity and depth to the song. Ever tasted Bannock? I have. Yummmm!
There can't be language learning without a Kinship Lesson or lessons on words for relations. This lesson on kinship comes from grandma and includes the children's participation. The kinship lesson is of course followed up with a Kinship Song that Art sings with some nice vocal harmony back up.
The Cree Sound Lesson consists of Art teaching us three short sounds, three long sounds, and gives us the distinction, the slight variations between Northern and Plains Cree. There are also several words borrowed from the early French voyageurs.
When you learn a language one of the first lessons will undoubtedly be a lesson in counting and numbers. This CD doesn't let us down. I'm thinking given another listen through that I'll be able to count to ten in Cree.
There is a lesson on Greetings like, "How are you?" The kids engaged in learning a language is a real nice touch. It makes it more believable and reachable by the novice language learner. This lesson is followed by a lesson on various commands.
In Ikosi or "closing" the CD ends the way it started with the traditional flute indicating of course that we have come full circle. The Cree language has its own spirit and if that spirit is cared for learning the language becomes easier. There are no words in Cree for "Good-bye" just "See you again."
This is a tribe specific language recording but is also accessible by anyone that has an interest in Native languages. It is an archive document that establishes the foundation for language revitalization and the continued maintenance of a tribal identity, a tribal culture.
This CD stands on it's own merits as a work of art that is unique and individual while the overall production quality is excellent.
"Mocikan which means having fun or celebrating" presents itself in a format that as the liner notes state, is "a sound collage." This is a beautiful and very professional presentation and even though I do not understand a word of Cree this CD is fun from beginning to end and I think I'm beginning to learn the language despite myself.
I sincerely believe that what we have here is a look into the future of the language revitalization programs that are springing up on every reservation and in urban populations all across the U.S. and Canada.
The unique format and the all out "learning our traditional language is fun" approach provides the listener with a listening experience that really shouldn't be missed. This format can be "the blue print for other language projects".
This project was funded by the First People's Cultural Foundation and is indicative of what can be accomplished when people put their hearts and minds to a collaborative project of this scope and nature. It is important for us to understand that our cultural survival depends on collaborations of this kind.
Language revitalization presents us with a methodology for retaining the cultures that are indigenous to the North American continent. Art Napoleon and the Nihiyaw Language and Culture Society along with the First People's Cultural Foundation are to be commended on their efforts with the vital challenge of language revitalization. Thank you.
Rose Moore - Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - You Will Fly
Category: Music
Rose Moore
Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - You Will Fly
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, I first met Rose Moore (Cherokee/African-American/Irish American) when she and I were both attending Guitar Tech Institute in Minneapolis to learn some music theory and guitar technique trying to hone our skills and give our music careers a boost.
Performing at WOMAD in 2004, she met London-based producer Nick Hogarth, who lives in London is the second co-producer, he provided song arrangements and backing tracks.
His creative use of world rhythm and keen pop sensibilities steered her songwriting in a more expansive direction leading to collaboration with Barcelona-based music producer Marcel Graell of Nowhere Studios
Rose’s website categorizes her sound as "Pop/Rock/Folk Rock however upon giving "You Will Fly" a close listen you will recognize right away that there is much more going on here. She is a true and honest representation of the genre "World Music" given the nature of her ethnic background and the diversity of influences reflected in her work. If you would like to learn how to paint pictures with sound then you need to hear this CD.
In the first trac All I Want Is This the lyrics speak for themselves as Rose sings, "A peaceful nature, serene countenance, Wisdom of the ages, limbs that dance, Capable of weighing risk and chance, Open to the charms of happenstance." Sung with a voice that is tinged with a little taste of grief over come and quiet reflective sadness of distance traveled.
The trac River of Love begins with a vocable chant and a smokin’ tribal rhythm backing up a powerful, sweetly beautiful vocal and a lyrical sentiment that we all should listen to and learn. "If you believe in love, love will believe in you." The style of the background guitar work on River of Love might sound familiar as it was played by Dominic Miller, Sting’s guitarist. Also, on background vocals is Gregg Koffi Brown of Osibisa fame.
The title song You Will Fly states most emphatically that you must "Take the step dare to be all you want to be, don’t look back, straight ahead let your heart be free." There’s that brilliant guitar behind Rosie’s vocal again. I think Rose has taken her own advice.
Allow me to state the obvious. The song Coming Home To You is a song about being away from your loved one. This song features some very sweet acoustic guitar licks and the lyrical sentiment seems to point at how every thing that you experience sends you back to the one you love. Les Davidson, a session player in London, plays the acoustic background arpeggio.
The song I Just Want Your Love is a very, very hot world/pop sound with a great hook. This song about falling in love with the wrong person despite all of the warning signs is imminently danceable. Or maybe its about desiring the danger and risk of it over your own common sense? There’s that brilliant guitar solo again and it just scorches your subconscious after Rose breaks it down. They fade out jamming. Cool.
Refugee is another highlight that features a Tabla drum and a Middle Eastern sound with a lyrical sentiment that addresses the current international crisis. This song shows us that Rose is not just a pretty face that enjoys dancing and sensuality but that she has intellect and awareness of her world. This is the stuff of which art is made. The lead solo at the end of the song is played by Les Davidson and again features Gregg Koffi Brown on back ground vocals.
Isabel of the Mountain Lake opens with a vocable harmony chant, unusual and interesting, you are immeidiately set up for another beautiful dance groove. The song tells the story of a woman who creates music from the serenity she experiences while sitting by the Mountain Lake. This a really beautiful combination of very diverse song elements.
All of the songs have beautifully intricate arrangements like lace in sound. Exceptional lyrically, vocally passionate and instrumentally like the sunrise over the Rockies in the spring, I have followed Rosie’s career ever since her early days and having heard most of her other work, I can safely say that her lush, layered, beautiful world music sound is the most mature I’ve heard in some time, not just from her but from anyone any where.
Here is a woman who is looking down from the mountain of challenges accepted, of dreams realized into the lush green valley of joyous cacophonous hope that lies in colorful bloom just on the other side and it is full of sound scapes and dance, sensuality and romance, spirituality and peace. Ahhh, life is good. Rose you done us proud Keep up the good work.
J C Campell - Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Lazy James
Category: Music
J C Campell
Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Lazy James
I know that when you hear a good Country CD it’s guaranteed that you’re going to hear some hard storytelling about hard drinkin’, hard women, and hard livin’ Interspersed with some great slide guitar or pedal steel playing. That’s what you get from JC Campbell’s CD Lazy James. In fact the slide work on this album is much in the blues genre if it weren’t for JC’s vocals. That’s a pure country sound in those vocal chords and heart.
JC Campbell, a Metis(French/Canadian-Native American) working out of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada is a singer/songwriter who combines blues, country, and rock for a unique blend all his own. Nominated for best blues CD and best song writer at the 2007 Aboriginal People’s Choice Awards, he sings heart felt original compositions with a strong baritone country-blues voice and after hearing the material on the CD, I know that he and I have walked some similar steps along a similar path.
The musicians on the CD include Jay Ross on lead, acoustic, rhythm and an absolutely brilliant slide guitar. JC Campbell on an acoustic guitar, of course, and DJ St. Germain on the bass and also some lead guitar. Tim Sutton rounds out the instruments and he’s solid on drums. JC Campbell works the background vocals with Tracy Bone, also a major country talent in her own right.
In the song Fortune, a brilliant sweet slide guitar fits perfectly with the sentiment of the song about how good times and bad times have an intimate relationship. "Don’t let the bad times get you down, the good stuff is good enough to turn things around."
The song Far From You is a crying in your beer honky-tonk love song about missing a loved one. "I don’t want to be far from you, I don’t want to not hear, I don’t want to not feel, I don’t want to not be by your side." It’s a clever and beautiful use of a double negative. This song is a spare country folk piece sung with just an acoustic guitar accompaniment as if JC is singing to his loved one right there in the studio, up close and personal. Beautiful.
Wino is that song about hard drinkin’ that I mentioned earlier in this review. There seems to be an angelic chorus in the background. The choir relates to the nature of alcohol and alcoholism and our communities relationship to the disease of alcoholism and the inherent loneliness in it.
The title track Lazy James is an autobiographical piece that lyrically lets us in to the life and experience of JC. When he sings "Here comes Lazy James, taking his sweet time, there ain’t no worry, he’s in no hurry, in a lazy state of mind" you know that he’s lived the things that he sings about.
One of the things that you get in great country music are great male/female vocal duets. Kenny and Dolly, Kris and Rita, George and Tammy, Loretta and Conway to name just a few that everyone but the neophyte will recognize even without last names. On this CD the song No Lies, a high point of this work, starts out with a scratchy record sound that gives this piece an old school country feel to it. A duet with Tracy Bone, it is also the title of Tracy’s own CD which was nominated for a 2007 Aboriginal People’s Choice Award in the category Best Country CD. This is a particularly strong vocal performance with a lyrical sentiment that speaks about honesty in your intimate relationships. Whoo. Hot.
Go Ahead starts with some strong rock oriented slide guitar and the lyrical sentiment is about urging your loved one to aspire to their dream and telling them to be confident in their dream because their love is strong and supportive of their efforts to do that. "Don’t worry, I ain’t goin’ nowhere and I’ll be right here when you get back." Once again there is some sweet bottleneck slide guitar work.
Keep On Tryin’ again features some excellent slide work by Jay Ross that provides the framework for a positive sentiment that tells us to never give up on our journey to peace of mind.
This CD is strong instrumentally, vocally and lyrically. It features one of the finest love song duets in Indian Country today. This is the stuff that makes Honky Tonkin’ worth it. Sometimes there is a vision of light down at the bottom of that glass. Does it really get any better than that? I’m glad that I can add this one to my archives of talented Native American musicians and their music.
Jimmy Wolf - Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Deep Downtown
Category: Music
Jimmy Wolf
Indigenous in the News Featured Artist Review - Deep Downtown
There are only a few ethno-musicologists that will recognize the role that the Native American culture plays in the origin of the blues genre. All traditional Native American music is built upon a pentatonic scale that is the base that supports all other tones involved in the creation of a music that responds well to the human condition. Any bluesman that has really studied and engaged in his craft would tell you that.
Jimmy Wolf is a Turtle clan Mohawk from upstate New York, twice nominated for best blues releases at the 1999 and 2000 Native American music awards. His resume reads like an almanac that contains the names of most of the remaining great blues masters.
First of all Jimmy plays a baritone guitar. The baritone guitar is a variation on the standard guitar, with a longer scale length that allows it to be tuned to a lower range. Baritone guitars have larger bodies than standard guitars, especially in the case of acoustic instruments, and the longer scale lengths allow the strings to be tuned lower while remaining close to or at normal tension.
I’m not certain that most would recognize the close association between our culture and the culture of the African American in the way that Jimmy Wolf does in his music. I was amazed and astounded when I heard the Pow Wow drum thumping behind a blistering blues solo. This is phenomenal. This is genius. It’s natural as I see it. It only just makes sense. This is what I live for.
Jimmy’s influences are wide and varied from several different genre and he has sidemen with him that are up to the challenge of hanging with Jimmy. Deep Downtown features the solid work of James Cloyd on bass and Lafrae Sci playing those native style pow wow grooves on the drums.
In the title track Deep Downtown we’ve got a hard rock, dance tune "deep down town give it up for the band." Given the tone of the guitar and the rhythm of the drums there might be a little punk influence here.
The song East Mclemore refers to the address of Stax records in Memphis and is a reference to the album released by Booker T. and the MG’s that featured instrumental covers of Beatles songs and is a philosophical comment on the difference between the British invasion and the excellence of American R & B. It’s raw and edgy. The cover of the album had a picture of Booker T. and the MG’s walking across the street in the same fashion as the Beatles did on their album "Abbey Road". A parody and social commentary of the highest order.
The song Earthshaker is a song of broken hearts and the grieving that can be involved in romance. This is one of the songs that I mentioned earlier with native drumming behind a blues guitar that is on fire. I love blues-rock guitar anyway but when I heard this I really started to get interested.
Just as I thought that I’d heard something interesting the song Groover starts out with a riff that is reminiscent of Iron Man by Black Sabbath but quickly shifts to a funk, r n b groove that elevates the listener into two very separate genre. You notice the versatility right away.
The song Full Stack Attack played with the delay on refers to a full Marshall Amplifier stack and he again references Jimi Hendrix with some solo work that sounds interestingly similar to the Hendrix work Third Stone From The Sun.
Seventh son blues, a song built around a traditional blues idiom with Jimmy’s own twist. The traditional seventh son song done Indian style. Jimmy say, "seven arrows fly, upon the seventh wind, see the sun arisin’, let the day begin."
Killing Our Own starts with an old school Chicago blues intro hook. This song has intelligence to it. It speaks of how our various communities are involved in gang warfare that holds our communities hostage because we are involved in a turf war that ends so many young lives too soon. Our own means that we are fighting amongst each other when we still have a common enemy. "We’re killing our own day by day."
