This Month's CD's
Voices Across the Canyon, Vol. 6
This latest release in the Across the Canyon series, brings together some of the finest music from Canyon Records' archives of over 400 albums. It has something for every ear attuned to the heartbeat of Native America: flute, drum, powwow, rock, traditional and the latest fusion of Native and contemporary musical styles by today's foremost Native artists: R. Carlos Nakai, Burning Sky, Radmilla Cody, Jay Begaye, Robert Tree Cody, Hovia Edwards, Randy Wood, Xavier Quijas Yxayotl, Medicine Dream, Cliff Sarde, and the Northern Cree Singers.
The album opens with Nakai's “Coyote Moon” from his 2004 GRAMMY nominated album Sanctuary, and the flute reappears in several other cuts as well. I was particularly struck by the mysterious sound of the Huichol flute and meso-American ancestral drum in Yxotyl's “Singing Earth” from the album by the same name.
Randy Wood's traditional Southern Cree chants for the round dance, a popular Native American couples' dance, strike a romantic note in “Look How the Stars Shine for You.” And who could resist the beautiful voice of Radmila Cody embracing the spirit of her matrilineal Navajo heritage in “The Return Home”?
Medicine Dream invites us to experience “Time Immemorial” with a blend of traditional singing, drumming and flute with guitars, bass, keyboards and a drum kit beating out an upbeat rock rhythm. But we don't stay there long—Jay Begaye takes us right back into traditional Navajo musical style with “Natay's Song.”
The album wends it way through romantic and dreamy, through rock and celebration, and finally winds up on a soulful note with Nakai, Robert Tree Cody and Cliff Sarde coming together for “Plains Wind.” Other tracks are not described here only due to space considerations.
Canyon Records, based in Phoenix, has been recording and distributing contemporary and traditional Native American music for over 50 years. I love the Voices Across the Canyon series for its commitment to bringing us a wide rnage of native artists and their music.
—Chiwah
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Heaven Sent
Heaven Sent is a fine example of what can happen when two musicians meant to work together are left to their own devices. ( Meant to work together Astrological twins: born on the same day, the same year, in the same town.) Cooper, who produced and arranged the album, offers us an angelic treat on soprano sax, while Kithara plays a divine kalimba (African thumb piano). They see the music as a journey through a day, a night, and an other day, beginning two blocks from the ocean with the waves getting louder as you approach, followed by a stroll alone in an open field. In the middle is a long jamming track that represents the night. The trip continues the next day up into the mountains, with birds, a stream and a rainstorm, and then back down to the ocean again.
The music was recorded in the late '70s—not in a studio, but in a four-story cement hall way! “We booked the studio and our engineer was unable to make it,” Cooper says. “I enjoy experimenting, and had played in enclosed environments from bathrooms to boxcars to get that natural echo.” Inspiration struck... and wow! Within one hour of stream-of-consciousness improvisation they recorded the music for this album. For years they only played it for friends, but in '83 he added nature sounds and released it as a cassette. It was used in a TV program The Magic of Music and played on nationally syndicated radio shows like Hearts of Space and L.A. 's famous Morning Becomes Eclectic. Its healing meditative sound also made it a favorite in yoga studios and medical and educational environments.
Re-released last month as a CD, Cooper says the album hit the #62 spot on the New Age radio charts within two weeks, with 25 stations around the world reporting playing it. This is Cooper's twelfth CD. He has also recorded a five-CD set for Dr. Lucia Capachionne, author of The Power of Your Other Hand and several smooth jazz CDs, of which the newest is Sound Travel, released in April, an eclectic album featuring world and smooth jazz.
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