R. Carlos Nakai | |
|---|---|
 Nakai playing in Moscow in 2012 | |
| Born | (1946-04-16)April 16, 1946 (age 78) Flagstaff, Arizona, United States |
| Occupation | Native American flute player |
| Years active | 1982–present |
| Awards | Grammy Award nominations |
| Website | www |
Raymond Carlos Nakai (born April 16, 1946) is aNative American flutist ofNavajo andUte heritage. Nakai playedbrass instruments in high school and college, and auditioned for theArmed Forces School of Music after a two-year period in theUnited States Navy. He began playing a traditional Native Americancedar flute after an accident left him unable to play the trumpet. Largely self-taught, he released his first albumChanges in 1983, and afterward signed a contract withCanyon Records, 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 musiciansWilliam Eaton,Peter Kater,Philip Glass,Nawang Khechog,Paul Horn, andKeola Beamer. He has received 11Grammy Award nominations for his albums.
Raymond Carlos Nakai was born inFlagstaff, Arizona on April 16, 1946, to a family ofNavajo andUte descent.[1][2] His father Raymond Nakai served as theChairman of the Navajo Nation from 1963 to 1970.[3] He now resides inTucson, Arizona.[1] As a child he would audition tapes for a Navajo language radio show hosted by his parents; in doing so, he heard a recording ofWilliam Horn Cloud, aLakota musician from thePine Ridge Reservation, playing the flute. When he enrolled in a high school on theColorado River Indian Reservation in Arizona, he sought to play the flute in the school band, but was assigned thecornet instead, which, he later said, he was less interested in.[4]
He began studying atNorthern Arizona University in 1966, where he playedbrass instruments in the marching band.[5] As a second-year student, he was drafted into theUnited States Navy, and spent two years studying communications and electronics inHawai'i and the south Pacific. He auditioned for theRoyal Hawaiian Band, but was turned down as he was not Hawaiian himself.[4][5] He continued to receive musical training while in the military.[2] He returned to the Navajo reservation in 1971, where he had a difficult period; several of his classmates had been killed in theVietnam War. He passed the highly competitive auditions for theArmed 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 correctembouchure to continue playing brass instruments.[4][6][7]
After his accident, Nakai had a brief struggle with drugs and alcohol.[4] 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.[4][8] Jones would continue to supply Nakai with flutes for several years.[4] Nakai found it difficult to expand his repertoire due to the absence of recordings orscores for traditional flute music; he therefore began to learn vocal music, and adapted many traditional songs for the flute.[4] He returned to Northern Arizona University to earn aBachelor's Degree in 1979 and later earned a master's degree in American Indian studies from theUniversity of Arizona.[4][7] He taught graphic art at a high school until 1983; his wife also worked as a teacher at the time.[4]
Nakai began recording his music oncassettes, and selling them on the Navajo Reservation. After a period of little success, he played his music during an exhibition at theHeard Museum, where a representative ofCanyon Records 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.[4][5] He recorded the albumChanges 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.[2][9][10] 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.[2][11] These recordings included several collaborations, including with the Japanese folk ensemble Wind Travelin' Band, thePhiladelphia Orchestra's Israeli cellist Udi Bar-David,[6] guitaristWilliam Eaton, American composerPhilip Glass, Tibetan flutistNawang Khechog, flutistPaul Horn, andslack key guitar playerKeola Beamer.[1]
Nakai's music prominently features improvisations on the Native American cedar flute. He also plays theeagle-bone whistle, and uses synthesizers, chanting, and sounds from nature. Although he occasionally plays arrangements of traditional melodies, most of his music attempts to "[create] original compositions that capture the essence of his heritage in highly personalized ways."[1][12] 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."[6] 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.[5][6] Nakai also composed a few "light-hearted" orchestral works.[4] Although his music has been popular among enthusiasts ofNew Age music, he has disagreed with that categorization.[4]
Many of Nakai's records have been critically and commercially successful. Two albums,Earth Spirit (1987) andCanyon Trilogy (1989), werecertified Gold by theRecording Industry Association of America.[9][10][11] Music review websiteAllMusic calledCanyon Trilogy"[elegant] in its simplicity",[13] and referred toEarth Spirit as "an outstanding CD from a soulful man."[14]
Nakai's 1995 collaboration withWilliam Eaton,Feather, Stone, and Light, topped theNew Age music album charts for 13 weeks, and was listed as a Billboard Critic's choice.[2] He has been nominated for theGrammy Award eleven times: first in 1993 forAncestral 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.[15] He has been described as one of the "most prolific and innovative artists" within his genre.[2]
Nakai developed a system oftablature notation, commonly known as Nakai tablature, that could be used to represent Native American music in a notation similar to that ofWestern classical music. It could be used across different flute types, as notes in it corresponded to intervals from thefundamental frequency of the flute, rather than to an absolute frequency.[16][17]
Nakai was featured on the 1999 filmSongkeepers, which depicted five Native American flute players — Nakai,Tom Mauchahty-Ware,Sonny Nevaquaya,Hawk Littlejohn,Kevin Locke — talking about their instruments and songs, and the role of the flute and its music in their tribes.[18] Nakai's 1985 compositionCycles was used by theMartha Graham Dance Company in 1988 as the music for its balletNightchant.[19][20][21] In 1993, Nakai played the flute as a soloist for thePhoenix Symphony's world premiere of a concerto for the ceder flute, composed by James DeMars.[20]
In 2005, Nakai was inducted into the Arizona Music & Entertainment Hall of Fame.[9] Nakai was awarded the Arizona Governor's Arts Award in 1992.[9][21] He received an honorary doctorate from Northern Arizona University in 1994,[5] and the NAUAA Dwight Patterson (1934) Alumnus of the Year Award in 2001.[22]The Library of Congress has more than 30 of his recordings preserved in theAmerican Folklife Center.[23]
Nakai's first album was released in 1983 byCanyon Records. He has since released forty other albums through Canyon and appeared as a guest on other labels.[24]
