The Nammys On Tour!

Celebrating 10 Years of the
Native American Music Awards

 

Each year, the Native American Music Association presents The Native American Music Awards (The Nammys), which draws national attention to the creativity of Native American performers and honors their finest performances. To honor 10 years of awards shows, we are inaugurating an annual nationwide concert tour during Native American Heritage Month, beginning in November 2009.  The tour will feature two performers who have been awarded Lifetime Achievement Awards, singer/ songwriter Joanne Shenandoah and flutist R. Carlos Nakai, and regional troupes of Native American dancers.  The variety of artistic expression, be it through voices, instruments, drums or dancing feet, pay homage to the rich legacy of Native American culture, and its timeless ability to express its innermost message through music.

About The Native American Music Association


The Native American Music Association was established in 1998 as a non-profit organization following the debut of the Native American Music Awards, in order to directly assist Native American musicians and educate the general public.  Over the past ten years, members of this all-volunteer, non-salaried Association have celebrated and shared many successes.  We helped create a GRAMMY category for Native American Music in 2000;  have received letters of acknowledgement from President George Bush, and a proclamation from Mayor Bloomberg. We have trained Native American youth in concert events and productions; helped MTV Networks establish a cultural diversity program to recruit Native American employees, and educate and entertain employees of parent company, Viacom.  Our national music archive has become the world's largest Native American music archive with over 7000 Native American audio and video recordings in all formats (cassette, vhs, cd, beta, dvd.)

The Performers

Joanne Shenandoah (Oneida)

Joanne Shenandoah is one of today's most revered Native American singers and songwriters. A Wolf Clan member of the Iroquois Confederacy, Oneida Nation, Shenandoah, whose Native name translates as "She Sings," has released 14 recordings and her music has been included on over 50 compilations. She's performed with such legendary entertainers as Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson, has recorded music for film sountracks (including the indie hit "Transamerica"), and has won more Native American Music Awards (Nammies) than any other artist.

By the time she was five years old, Shenandoah was on stage singing for cultural presentations and dances. Both of her parents had tremendous musical talent - her dad, a jazz guitarist, had played with Duke Ellington - and music was her family's form of entertainment as she was growing up. "Music was very family involved," she reflected. "My dad got me singing Sam Cooke for a 3rd-grade talent contest. I won the grand prize, this little girl singing 'September in the Rain.'"

Shenandoah attended boarding school in her teens where she was immersed in classical-oriented music. She learned to play several instruments, in cluding clarinet, flute, cello and piano. Though engrossed in classical music at the time, she did enjoy ohter musical influences as varied as Billie Holiday and Jimi Hendrix "While it might sound funny," she admitted, "when I was sixteen I was very into Wayne Newton."

Shenandoah's first big concert happened in 1990 for an event called the Pahasapa Festival. "Ironically, I didn't know that music was for me," she recalled, "even though I probably sang at everyone's wedding and had been performing on stage since I was a little girl." She was invited to perform alongside Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman and Buddy Big Mountain on a bill that featured such artists as Neil Young, Jackson Brown, John Denver and John Trudell. "I remember thinking to myself, 'Hey, this is a lot of fun. I should do this more often!'"

Shenandoah began writing her own songs, leaving behind a lucrative career as an architectural systems engineer. "I had all of the things in life that I thought of as important," she recalled. "From my office window I saw a tree being cut down and knew that I, too, had been uprooted and needed to follow my natural gift." She left her firm in Washington, D.C. and returned to Oneida territory determined to forge a career as a musician. One of the first songs she wrote was sent out before she had obtained the necessary copyrights and ended up on Kenny Rogers and Barbara St4reisand albums. "I didn't receive credit for the song, but remember thinking, 'Maybe I do have an opportunity to do music.'"

Her first album, titled "Joanne Shenandoah," is a blend of country and Native music. "I call it my 'cowboys & Indians' alnbum," she said. "It's self titled it, because I didn't know if I would be recording anymore. It was kind of like my beginning, just to give it a shot." Shenandoah follows a ritual with each album she records, thinking the project through in terms of theme and breathing into it its own life. "Every song is part of who I am and each album is like a chapter in someone's life. I believe they're ancestrally inspired and my guardians are there with me as I create them."

Shenandoah has performed with some of the biggest names in the business and even recorded a demo for a spot on Frank Sinatra's "Duets" album. "I've actually wined and dined with Sinatra," she recalled. "He said to me, 'So, you're a singer huh?' I almost made it onto 'Duets,' but wasn't well known enough at the time." Shenandoah, though remained focused on her craft, never becoming star struck by those with whom she's performed and never allowing disappointment to get the better of her. "I think it's all in the attitude of what you can do."

During her extensive touring, Shenandoah had the opportunity to work with a multitude of Native artists whose craft wasn't receiving the recognition she felt it deserved. She spoke with the then-CEO of Foxwoods Resort Casino, Kip Hayward, among others and convinced them to establish the Native American Music Awards. "There was so much great talent in Native music," she said. "We launched it right then. It was an incredible night." They were even able to get Wayne Newton, one of Shenandoah's early influences, to host the awards show.

R. Carlos Nakai (Navajo/Ute)

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 the Diné had a strong flute-playing tradition, it was lost when they migrated from the Northwest Plains of Canada to the Southwest over five centuries ago. 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.

In his usual determination to have a thorough knowledge of the instrument, Nakai crafted his own. He later learned from a flute-making teacher that rather than the oak Nakai was using, cedar is the only wood that works well. He also discovered that when it comes to flute making, there are no standard dimensions. The finger holes and air column are based on hand and finger measurements and are never the same. As a result, each flute has a different sound and pitch, which makes the tonality of the instruments random.  Nakai views each flute less as a musical instrument than “as a sound sculpture - a piece of art that also creates sound.”

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 three 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: from devotional meditations to jazz ensembles to full symphonic works.  Additionally, Nakai creates new sounds for the flute using electronic technology such as synthesizers and digital delay. 

A native Arizonan, Nakai’s southwestern surroundings as well as his culture, heavily influence his work. He points out “A lot of what I’ve been taught culturally, comes from an awareness of the environment... How I feel is based on my impressions of being in certain spaces at certain times. Thinking back...on personal tribal stories and the history of my culture figures into how I organize my music.”

While solo flute albums are the core of his work, Nakai is ambitious regarding joining forces with other musicians. He views collaborations as “philosophical communication between...musicians” and opportunities to explore beyond traditional musical and cultural boundaries.  His projects include Island of Bows, recorded with a Japanese group using acoustic and traditional Japanese instruments; Red Wind, with luthier and guitarist William Eaton and percussionist Will Clipman; Winds of Devotion with  Tibetan flutist Nawang Khechog; Inside Monument Valley with silver flutist Paul Horn, and Ancient Future with his Native Jazz group, the R. Carlos Nakai Quartet.  He has also recorded two symphonic CD’s featuring classical pieces written especially for him by Arizona composer James DeMars.  His latest project is Native Voices, a collaboration with Hawaiian Slack Key guitarist Keola Beamer.

Nakai 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 addition to his artistic successes, Nakai has amassed unprecedented commercial honors, including 6 Grammy nominations and the 1st two Gold Records to be awarded to a traditional Native American musician.  A prolific musician and composer, he has 37 albums in commercial distribution, including 28 releases on the Canyon Records label.   Just counting his Canyon titles, Nakai recently surpassed 3,500,000 units sold worldwide. 

When Nakai is not recording, composing or researching, his 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.”

 

Press Photos

Joanne Shenandoah Nammys R. Carlos Nammys Shenandoah  

 

Tour Schedule

 

November 18 Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo CA

November 20 Cal State University, Chico Ca

November 22 Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant M

 

 

Back to Artist Menu

 

Ticket info - call 800-555-1212