Raymond Carlos Nakai (born April 16, 1946) is a
Native American flutist of
Navajo
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest fe ...
and
Ute heritage. Nakai played
brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin a ...
s in high school and college, and auditioned for the
Armed Forces School of Music after a two-year period in the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
. He began playing a traditional Native American
cedar
Cedar may refer to:
Trees and plants
*''Cedrus'', common English name cedar, an Old-World genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae
*Cedar (plant), a list of trees and plants known as cedar
Places United States
* Cedar, Arizona
* ...
flute after an accident left him unable to play the trumpet. Largely self-taught, he released his first album ''Changes'' in 1983, and afterward signed a contract with
Canyon Records
Canyon Records of Phoenix, Arizona is a record label that has produced and distributed Native American music for 56 years.
History
Canyon was founded in 1951 by Ray and Mary Boley, who had opened the first recording studio in Phoenix, Arizona ...
, who produced more than thirty of his albums in subsequent years. His music prominently features original compositions for the flute inspired by traditional Native American melodies. Nakai has collaborated with musicians
William Eaton William Eaton or Bill Eaton may refer to:
* William Eaton (soldier) (1764–1811), United States Army soldier during the Barbary Wars
* William Eaton (athlete) (1909–1938), British long-distance runner
* William Eaton (guitarist), American luth ...
,
Peter Kater
Peter Kater (born 1958) is a German-born American pianist, composer and Grammy Award winner.
When he was four, he moved with his family from Germany to New Jersey. He studied classical piano at an early age. In 1977 when he was eighteen, Peter mo ...
,
Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive ...
,
Nawang Khechog
Nawang Khechog (; also known as Nawang Khechong) is a Tibetan flute player and composer.
Nawang was born in Tibet, but following the Chinese invasion of 1949/1950, his family moved to India, where Nawang studied meditation and Buddhist philo ...
,
Paul Horn, and
Keola Beamer
Keola Beamer (born Keolamaikalani Breckenridge Beamer February 18, 1951) is a Hawaiian slack-key guitar player, best known as the composer of "Honolulu City Lights" and an innovative musician who fused Hawaiian roots and contemporary music. Keola ...
. He has received 11
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
nominations for his albums.
Biography
Early life and education
Raymond Carlos Nakai was born in
Flagstaff, Arizona on April 16, 1946, to a family of
Navajo
The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Southwestern United States.
With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest fe ...
and
Ute descent.
He now resides in
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
, Arizona.
[ As a child he would audition tapes for a Navajo language radio show hosted by his parents; in doing so, he heard a recording of ]William Horn Cloud
William Horn Cloud (known as William 'Horncloud') was born in 1905 (some sources say 1907), Medicine District, Pine Ridge, Potato Creek, South Dakota and died in 1992. He was born to Joseph Horn Cloud and Mildred Beautiful Bald Eagle. His father J ...
, a Lakota
Lakota may refer to:
* Lakota people, a confederation of seven related Native American tribes
*Lakota language, the language of the Lakota peoples
Place names
In the United States:
* Lakota, Iowa
* Lakota, North Dakota, seat of Nelson County
* La ...
musician from the Pine Ridge Reservation
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation ( lkt, Wazí Aháŋhaŋ Oyáŋke), also called Pine Ridge Agency, is an Oglala Lakota Indian reservation located entirely within the U.S. state of South Dakota. Originally included within the territory of the Gr ...
, playing the flute. When he enrolled in a high school on the Colorado River Indian Reservation
The Colorado River Indian Tribes (Mojave language 'Aha Havasuu, Navajo language: Tó Ntsʼósíkooh Bibąąhgi Bitsįʼ Yishtłizhii Bináhásdzo) is a federally recognized tribe consisting of the four distinct ethnic groups associated with the ...
in Arizona, he sought to play the flute in the school band, but was assigned the cornet
The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B, though there is also a so ...
instead, which, he later said, he was less interested in.
He began studying at Northern Arizona University
Northern Arizona University (NAU) is a public research university based in Flagstaff, Arizona. It was founded in 1899 as the final public university established in the Arizona Territory, 13 years before Arizona was admitted as the 48th state. ...
in 1966, where he played brass instrument
A brass instrument is a musical instrument that produces sound by sympathetic vibration of air in a tubular resonator in sympathy with the vibration of the player's lips. Brass instruments are also called labrosones or labrophones, from Latin a ...
s in the marching band. As a second-year student, he was drafted into the United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, and spent two years studying communications and electronics in Hawai'i and the south Pacific. He auditioned for the Royal Hawaiian Band
The Royal Hawaiian Band is the oldest and only full-time municipal band in the United States. At present a body of the City & County of Honolulu, the Royal Hawaiian Band has been entertaining Honolulu residents and visitors since its inception ...
, but was turned down as he was not Hawaiian himself.[ He continued to receive musical training while in the military.] He returned to the Navajo reservation in 1971, where he had a difficult period; several of his classmates had been killed in the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. He passed the highly competitive auditions for the Armed Forces School of Music, and was 28th on the waiting list for admission. Playing with the Armed Forces Band became impossible after an auto accident damaged his mouth, making it impossible to produce the correct embouchure
Embouchure () or lipping is the use of the lips, facial muscles, tongue, and teeth in playing a wind instrument. This includes shaping the lips to the mouthpiece of a woodwind instrument or the mouthpiece of a brass instrument. The word is o ...
to continue playing brass instruments.
Musical career
After his accident, Nakai had a brief struggle with drugs and alcohol. In 1972 he was given a traditional cedar flute, which he gradually taught himself to play, going on to purchase an instrument from Oliver William Jones, a flute maker from California who Nakai met while working as a vendor at a museum. Jones would continue to supply Nakai with flutes for several years. Nakai found it difficult to expand his repertoire due to the absence of recordings or scores for traditional flute music; he therefore began to learn vocal music, and adapted many traditional songs for the flute. He returned to Northern Arizona University to earn a Bachelor's Degree
A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...
in 1979 and later earned a master's degree in American Indian studies from the University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...
. He taught graphic art at a high school until 1983; his wife also worked as a teacher at the time.
Nakai began recording his music on cassettes, and selling them on the Navajo Reservation. After a period of little success, he played his music during an exhibition at the Heard Museum, where a representative of Canyon Records
Canyon Records of Phoenix, Arizona is a record label that has produced and distributed Native American music for 56 years.
History
Canyon was founded in 1951 by Ray and Mary Boley, who had opened the first recording studio in Phoenix, Arizona ...
bought one of his cassettes. His playing impressed the museum's administrators, who offered him a job; Nakai subsequently worked for the museum for three years. He recorded the album ''Changes'' in 1983, and sold it independently; soon afterward, he signed a contract with Canyon Records, who would release more than thirty of his recordings over the next decades. By 2016, Nakai had recorded more than thirty commercial albums with Canyon records and several more with other producers, and had sold more than 3.5 million records.[ These recordings included several collaborations, including with the Japanese folk ensemble Wind Travelin' Band, the ]Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscriptio ...
's Israeli cellist Udi Bar-David, guitarist William Eaton William Eaton or Bill Eaton may refer to:
* William Eaton (soldier) (1764–1811), United States Army soldier during the Barbary Wars
* William Eaton (athlete) (1909–1938), British long-distance runner
* William Eaton (guitarist), American luth ...
, American composer Philip Glass
Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive ...
, Tibetan flutist Nawang Khechog
Nawang Khechog (; also known as Nawang Khechong) is a Tibetan flute player and composer.
Nawang was born in Tibet, but following the Chinese invasion of 1949/1950, his family moved to India, where Nawang studied meditation and Buddhist philo ...
, flutist Paul Horn, and slack key guitar
Slack-key guitar (from Hawaiian ''kī hōalu'', which means "loosen the uningkey") is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii after Portuguese cowboys introduced Spanish guitars there in the late 19th century. The Hawaiia ...
player Keola Beamer
Keola Beamer (born Keolamaikalani Breckenridge Beamer February 18, 1951) is a Hawaiian slack-key guitar player, best known as the composer of "Honolulu City Lights" and an innovative musician who fused Hawaiian roots and contemporary music. Keola ...
.
Genre and style
Nakai's music prominently features improvisations on the Native American cedar flute. He also plays the eagle-bone whistle
The eagle bone whistle is a religious object, used by some members of Native American spiritual societies in sacred ceremonies. They are made from bones of either the American bald eagle or the American golden eagle, and are considered powerful ...
, and uses synthesizers, chanting, and sounds from nature. Although he occasionally plays arrangements of traditional melodies, most of his music attempts to " reateoriginal compositions that capture the essence of his heritage in highly personalized ways." Nakai states: "I build upon the tribal context, while still retaining its essence. Much of what I do builds upon and expresses the environment and experience that I’m having at the moment." His collaborations have included works produced with musicians of different genres, including jazz, western classical music, and traditional music from different parts of the world. Nakai also composed a few "light-hearted" orchestral works. Although his music has been popular among enthusiasts of New Age music
New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy rather than ...
, he has disagreed with that categorization.
Recognition and legacy
Many of Nakai's records have been critically and commercially successful. Two albums, ''Earth Spirit'' (1987) and ''Canyon Trilogy'' (1989), were certified Gold
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
by the Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/ ...
. Music review website ''AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...
'' called ''Canyon Trilogy'' in its simplicity", and referred to ''Earth Spirit'' as "an outstanding CD from a soulful man."
Nakai's 1995 collaboration with William Eaton William Eaton or Bill Eaton may refer to:
* William Eaton (soldier) (1764–1811), United States Army soldier during the Barbary Wars
* William Eaton (athlete) (1909–1938), British long-distance runner
* William Eaton (guitarist), American luth ...
, ''Feather, Stone, and Light'', topped the New Age music
New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecstasy rather than ...
album charts for 13 weeks, and was listed as a Billboard Critic's choice. He has been nominated for the Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
eleven times: first in 1993 for ''Ancestral Voices'' in the Best Traditional Folk Album category, and later eight times in the Best New Age Album category, and twice in the Best Native American Album category. He has been described as one of the "most prolific and innovative artists" within his genre.
Nakai developed a system of tablature
Tablature (or tabulature, or tab for short) is a form of musical notation indicating instrument fingering rather than musical pitches.
Tablature is common for fretted stringed instruments such as the guitar, lute or vihuela, as well as many fr ...
notation, commonly known as Nakai tablature, that could be used to represent Native American music in a notation similar to that of Western classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical music, as the term "classical music" ...
. It could be used across different flute types, as notes in it corresponded to intervals from the fundamental frequency
The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the ''fundamental'', is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In music, the fundamental is the musical pitch of a note that is perceived as the lowest partial present. I ...
of the flute, rather than to an absolute frequency.
Nakai was featured on the 1999 film ''Songkeepers'', which depicted five Native American flute players — Nakai, Tom Mauchahty-Ware, Sonny Nevaquaya, Hawk Littlejohn, Kevin Locke Kevin Locke may refer to:
* Kevin Locke (musician) (born 1954 - passed October 1, 2022), Native American musician
*Kevin Locke (rugby league) (born 1989), New Zealand rugby league footballer
See also
* Kevin Lock (born 1953), English former footba ...
— talking about their instruments and songs, and the role of the flute and its music in their tribes. Nakai's 1985 composition ''Cycles'' was used by the Martha Graham Dance Company
The Martha Graham Dance Company, founded in 1926, is known for being the oldest American dance company. Founded by Martha Graham as a contemporary dance company, it continued to perform pieces, revive classics, and train dancers even after Graham's ...
in 1988 as the music for its ballet ''Nightchant''. In 1993, Nakai played the flute as a soloist for the Phoenix Symphony
The Phoenix Symphony is an American symphony orchestra based in Phoenix, Arizona. The orchestra performs primarily at Phoenix Symphony Hall, and is the only full-time, professional orchestra in the state of Arizona.
History
Founded in 1947, the ...
's world premiere of a concerto for the ceder flute, composed by James DeMars.[
In 2005, Nakai was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.] Nakai was awarded the Arizona Governor's Arts Award in 1992. He received an honorary doctorate from Northern Arizona University in 1994, and the NAUAA Dwight Patterson (1934) Alumnus of the Year Award in 2001. The Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
has more than 30 of his recordings preserved in the American Folklife Center
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a repo ...
.
Discography
Nakai's first album was released in 1983 by Canyon Records
Canyon Records of Phoenix, Arizona is a record label that has produced and distributed Native American music for 56 years.
History
Canyon was founded in 1951 by Ray and Mary Boley, who had opened the first recording studio in Phoenix, Arizona ...
. He has since released forty other albums through Canyon and appeared as a guest on other labels.
Publications
*
References
External links
R. Carlos Nakai
from the Echoes public radio show
World Music Central biography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakai, R. Carlos
1946 births
Living people
20th-century Native Americans
21st-century Native Americans
Educators from Arizona
Military personnel from Arizona
Musicians from Arizona
Native American flautists
Navajo musicians
Northern Arizona University alumni
People from Flagstaff, Arizona
University of Arizona alumni
Ute people
Writers from Arizona
Native American people from Arizona