Order Tickets Securely Online
| THE QUARTET: | |
|
|
|
Will
Clipman - A "Saamoke" (mixed blood of Saami and
Cherokee heritage) Will began drumming at the age of three and
playing professionally at the age of fourteen. His
discography includes over fifty recordings, fifteen of those for
the world's leading Native American music label Canyon
Records, among which is the 2001 GRAMMY Finalist In
A Distant Place, and three solo projects on his Bone Fire
Music label. When he isn't making big medicine
performing, touring and recording with the R. Carlos Nakai
Quartet, the Nakai-Eaton-Clipman Trio, the William Eaton
Ensemble or the Conrads, playing everything from acoustic world
chamber jazz to electric blues rock to acoustic ethnic fusion,
Will also performs a solo show called Global Village Musical
Story Theater, an interdisciplinary synthesis that combines his
original masks and mythopoetic story-telling with a
multicultural soundscape of indigenous musical instruments. 
Amo
Chip Dabney - Chip's first music experiences included the
New Jersey State Boy's Symphony Choir and the Newark School for
the Performing Arts in both vocal and instrumental music
studies. The music of Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinal, Cannon
Ball Adderley, Dave Holland, Dollar Brand, and the Arts Ensemble
of Chicago are among his early listening influences. A
master of many music styles, Chip has performed with African,
world-beat, reggae, R and B, and jazz bands and has worked with
Sun Ra and his Omniverse Arkestra, O.J. Ekemode and the Nigerian
All-Stars, Zydeco's Queen Ida and the avant garde ensemble, and
the Rova Saxophone Quartet. He has appeared on over
twenty-one recordings and has released two albums of original
compositions, So Many Ways, and Escape from Newark
on his label MicroChip. 
R.
Carlos Nakai - of Navajo-Ute heritage, is regarded as the
world's premiere performer of the native American flute.
Nakai was given a traditional cedar wood flute as a gift and
challenged to see what he could do with it. In the '70's,
RC was influenced to work with the native American flute in
contemporary music expressions by early native American
composers, performers and by direct encouragement at the World
Music Seminar at the Creative Music Studio in Woodstock, NY.
In 1983 his first album, Changes, was released by Canyon
Records Productions and is followed by over thirty-five more
recordings. He was awarded the Arizona Governor's Art
Award in 1992. His GRAMMY Finalist awards in the New
Age category include Fourth World, In a Distant Place, Inside
Monument Valley, Inner Voices, and Ancestral Voices, all on
the Canyon Records label. Earth Spirit and Canyon
Trilogy are RIAA Certified Gold Records. Nakai has
earned a BS in Education at Northern Arizona University, an MA
in American Indian Studies from the University of Arizona, and
was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Northern Arizona
University. Nakai sees his role as a performer of the
traditional flute not only to reiterate traditional sounds but
to find new avenues of expression for the instrument in the
traditional and contemporary indigenous cultures of the
Americas. 
Mary
Redhouse - of the Navajo tribe, has established a career in
southern Arizona as a performer, composer and educator.
She is a versatile jazz vocalist and calls her exploratory style
"eco-spiritual" because it incorporates bird calls,
animal cries, multi-octave scat lines, and native chants.
Mary was introduced to jazz in grade school by Beatrice Parker,
a beatnik and school librarian who played jazz albums while Mary
shelved books. Although she listened to the classic jazz
vocalists, Mary cites instrumentalists John Coltrane,
Charlie Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, Roland
Kirk, Ornette Coleman, and Dave Holland as some of her main
influences. She has toured for the Arizona Commission on
the Arts and has opened for Geri Allen, Marlena Shaw and Jane
Ira Bloom. In 1994 she collaborated with critically
acclaimed bassist Michael Formanek and guitarist John Stowell
and presented A NEW WIND: Native American Vocal Jazz
Explorations (a collection of her original intertribals for
a jazz group). Mary herself performs on the William Eaton
ensemble's Naked In Eureka and on the Redhouse family's Urban
Indian, both released by Canyon Records. Another view of the Nakai Quartet:
More On Nakai: To become the world's premier Native American flutist, R. Carlos Nakai had to rely more on research and innovation and less on his Navajo-Ute heritage. While Nakai may not have been "born to the flute," it was curiosity about his heritage that led him to it. During the late 1960s while researching American Indian music and traditional instruments, the wooden flute piqued Nakai's interest, but it wasn't until 1972 that he took it up seriously. Prior to that Nakai had devoted his musical energies to classical training on the cornet and trumpet. Part of Nakai's philosophy is to ensure that the native flute does not become a "museum piece" of a bygone culture. Through his original compositions and other musical collaborations, Nakai intends to show the instrument's versatility and capabilities. Over the past two decades, Nakai has melded his classical training with his expertise on the cedar flute to form a complex, sophisticated sound that not only reveals the flute's uniqueness, but covers the spectrum of musical genres: jazz ensembles, piano and guitar collaborations, and the concert hall. A prolific musician and composer, he has 27 albums in commercial distribution, including 18 releases on the Canyon Records label. Just counting his Canyon titles, Nakai recently surpassed the 2,000,000 units sold worldwide. He was a 1994 Grammy Award finalist for "Best Traditional Folk Album". He has written and performed scores for film and television including selections for the National Park Service, Fox Television, the Discovery Channel, IMAX, the National Geographic Society and many commercial productions. In 1992, Nakai received the Governor of Arizona's Arts Award, the second Native American so honored. In 1994, Nakai was conferred with an honorary doctorate by Northern Arizona University and the Arizona Board of Regents for his "exceptional achievements and contributions to humankind." And when he is not recording, composing or researching, 70 to 80 percent of the year is spent touring throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Japan performing and lecturing on Native American culture and philosophy. Nakai wouldn't have it any other way. "...We were put on the earth to experience life in its totality. And if you're not doing that, you're essentially wasting your time."
For more information on this
great music go to: www.rcarlosnakai.com
|
THE R. CARLOS NAKAI QUARTET |
|
|
A Band of Native Americans
R. Carlos Nakai - Flutes, Bb Trumpet, Amo Chip Dabney - Keyboard, Saxophone, Bass, Will Clipman - Percussion, Mary Redhouse - Bass, Vocals, Keyboard, Performing original tunes in contemporary ethnic world fusion, the RCNQ blends ancient timbres of indigenous flute, pan-global percussion, and the human voice with modern textures and urban rhythms perfect for both intimate listening, exuberant dancing, and trance-inducing grooves and inspirational melodies that continue to be appreciated by SRO audiences and audiophiles from coast to coast. Mixing structured compositions with improvisation, the Quartet expresses, in a spacious harmony among large voices, the varied music and cultural heritages and working experiences of its members. The haunting tones of Nakai's traditionally-tuned indigenous cedar flutes are joined by emotionally expressive saxophones, keyboard variations, rich bass grooves and the polyrhythmic pulse of world percussion. Hauntingly familiar yet startlingly fresh, the music of the R. Carlos Nakai Quartet will soothe your soul, fire your imagination, and move your feet.
|
| PSA ~ Press Release | |
|
R.
Carlos Nakai Quartet In Madison, Wisconsin The
group is inspired by and draws upon traditional native music,
modern jazz, urban rhythms and contemporary popular music genres.
Hauntingly familiar yet startlingly fresh, the music of the
R. Carlos Nakai Quartet will soothe your soul, fire your
imagination, and move your feet. For
Tickets and Information please call Tri-Unity Wellife, LLC
608-256-0080 or on line www.wellife.org.
|
REVIEWS:
what the critics are saying about RCNQ:
"...as fresh as the air after a long rain and as contemporary as tomorrow's sunrise...one of the most thoughtful cross-cultural collaborations to come along in a very long time." Manny Frishberg, Tacoma City Paper
"...these musicians skillfully join textures and traditions from different cultures and styles into the sound of a new world consciousness." Aquarius
"While it's absolutely amazing to hear such fresh, original music..., it's not really a surprise...these four musicians have stretched way out from any one tradition to create something unique, even daring." Steve "Edge" Ryals, New Age Retailer
"One of the master musicians of our time, Nakai and his Quartet play jazz that is appealing as easy listening, yet explores the improvisational edges of melodies in the manner of a traditional jazz artist." New Age Voice
"...a benchmark in placing the cedar flute firmly within the context of mainstream contemporary jazz." Andrew Means, Rhythm Music Magazine
"A southwestern super-group. A fusion of jazz, folk, and native American styles...Performed with the kind of low-key intensity that is the mark of virtuosos...they understand the creative nature of this tension and exploit it fully, with wonderful collaborative results." Fred Mills, Goldmine |
|
|