R. Carlos Nakai on his first solo flute album since 2008 — ‘Nocturne’
“Nocturne” is the first solo album from Native American flute virtuoso R. Carlos Nakai since 2008. With more than 40 albums in 35 years, Nakai has received 11 Grammy nominations and has collaborated with many musicians including Philip Glass, Peter Kater, Nawang Khechong, and William Eaton. Of Dine’ (Navajo) and Ute heritage, Nakai’s musical life began with trumpet. But during his time in the U.S. Navy in San Diego from 1966 to 1971 he had an accident that diminished his ability to play trumpet. Nakai later began experimenting with Native American flute. He told the Sentinel that “Nocturne” represents, “The journey of becoming human and becoming of service.”
Tribal communities
JM: “Your parents had a radio show when you were young, where you were exposed to lots of different music, including Native. Was music and ceremony a big part of your life growing up?”
R. Carlos Nakai: “In the old days — meaning anywhere before 1960 — young people were always exposed to one or more kinds of ceremonies within their own tribal communities. As I was. We would travel to the Hopis or the Navajos, the Utes or the Apaches. Or any of the Southwestern Tribes. Once in a while, a Plains tribe. And we’d participate in ceremonies and have people explain what they were all about.
When my father got involved in radio broadcasting, he asked me to go into the stacks and select music to use on his morning programs. I got interested in all the different kinds of cultural musics that were available in the radio station’s library. While waiting for him, I would go and select recordings of different tribal communities and other things. I listened to that music while I was waiting.”
Finding possibilities for the instrument
JM: “Are you playing trumpet now, sometimes?
R. Carlos Nakai: “Off and on. I’m putting down ideas because I have a commission for trumpet solo that will be premiered next year (2021). When I had the accident in the military, it wrecked everything musically.
The aperture took a big hit, but I can play for a little while.
When I got home, I applied all of the knowledge that I’d gained from majoring in music, onto this instrument I started working with (Native American flute). And that’s primarily what I do today; finding possibilities for the instrument.”
Collector’s item for high prices
R. Carlos Nakai: “I discovered that this instrument was utilized only by much older elders, in the Plains community. Young ones didn’t know very much about what the instrument was, or how it was used. Having visited the museums in Europe and the United States, I knew that these would more than likely be turned into collector’s items for high prices. So, I determined to find instruments that would work in the traditional parameters of G minor and F sharp minor and interview some of the older gentlemen who are still playing the flute. It fell together because much of my training as a musician was always trying to discern what key ranges and modes an instrument could play. I began applying that to this instrument and decided, “OK, I’ll ensure that the instrument won’t disappear into museum collections.”
Primarily meditative
JM: “Nocturne” is your first solo flute album in thirteen years. What’s important about recording another solo album?”
R. Carlos Nakai: “Many of the people playing the flute have no music training, or very little. So, much of the sound is either from someone else or deals primarily with; how many notes can I fit into this arpeggio and make it work! (laugh) The instrument was actually invented by the Plains people for meditation and to, as we say, sing how I feel about being in the world. So, with that in mind I began my whole project of ensuring that this instrument will stick very closely to traditional performance techniques. With “Nocturne,” it was; “I need to get out there and do a recording of the sound of the instrument within its own world of applied acoustics. That includes a lot of my brass technique and the new vocal music techniques of having sung with different drum groups. It’s primarily meditative.”
Transitions of change
JM: “Nocturne” is organized into four movements, each with three songs with titles like “Origin Story,” “Mindfulness,” “Integrating My World,” and “Creativity Chant.” Tell me how the album came about.”
R. Carlos Nakai: “I started with a kind of liner note; “In these “strange days” a self-defined savant and his true believers — like the coyote — have redirected our homeland onto a pitiful backroad of indecisiveness and blind faith.” And of course, the record company looked at it and said, “No. It sounds political.” I said, “It’s just that we’ve launched ourselves headlong into this highspeed culture and we’re not sitting down and thinking and communicating with ourselves. There are authorities out there that know very little about being in the world and being childlike and discovering how we change every day.” The album is about all of that, all at once.
The titles were going to deal with growing into becoming a human being from a child. Learning how to be in the world and how one’s self belongs to one or more cultural heritages and then follow their own road. There’s no set pattern of life; it’s always changing. In how we integrate ourselves into the world as individuals — not as groups but as individuals — who have a dream about what their life will become.”
Morning prayer
J
M: “Part of your album focuses on gratitude for beauty in the world and community.”
R
. Carlos Nakai: “How many still get out, even as indigenous people, and pray in the morning? And watch the sunrise? And then go back inside and have a cup of coffee or whatever and speak to their relatives about being a part of their family and the community. Not very many people do that. My cats and I still do it, standing at our living room window. And they know what I’m doing. I’m sure they do because they’ll sit with me, also gazing out. And we do our morning prayer. And then we learn things about becoming enlightened. Our metaphysical journeys, our wandering dreams. The journey of our soul, actually. And becoming centered within ourselves. It’s all of that.”
All life again
J RM: ““Nocturne” ends with “Elder Song.”
. Carlos Nakai: “Many of the students that I’ve had with the Feathered Pipe Ranch in Montana have gone on to play flute music to people who are passing from this reality to becoming everything again. And they say, “It’s just so neat to watch because many of them, when they leave, they begin smiling.” And I said, “Yeah, because they see now what they have become. And what we all are. And how there’s nothing to fear. It’s just that we become all life again. And then we come back to have another game. To play in a new life form.
There’s one genetic code on this whole planet. And the variations in that code make us all different from one another.
But if you look at plants and animals, of things in the air and in the water and even the water itself, you’ll find the very same genetic code. So, what makes us all different? How we think. How we dream. And of course, how we serve others to make their dreams good, too. I call it — as others in the ‘60’s did — having a good time! (laugh) And here I am now, becoming an elder. I’m learning that, too! When I finally go through that doorway, I’ll still be learning. It’s sort of an adventure, to me, to be in the world.”
No belief in anything
J
M: You’ve pointed to the difference between belief and knowledge. It seems to me that belief is partly about being convinced of something, where knowledge comes from direct experience.”
R. Carlos Nakai: “Yes. Belief requires some sort of dogmatic approach. A convincing. Of belittling an individual until they say, “Well, you may be right.” So, then you get into authority figures and become dependent upon a system that really was invented. I always look at religion as one of the greatest myths that exist today. It’s a story of survival. But it’s put together in such a way that it’s, “This is what we know and this is what you don’t know! Therefore, we are authorities.” All the various perspectives of Buddhist awareness is not a belief system. It requires no belief in anything, except one’s self. And how one is intending to move into the future by developing a sense of self. Of self-intention.”
Looking for the same dream
R. Carlos Nakai: “I’m getting ready to deal with philosophy that deals with transition. They call it the Chod; a song and ceremony of transition. And that’s going to happen very soon again, with us. And I said, “Shouldn’t we be doing a Chod, a chant for the world? To chant for where we love and to play our drum and all the other instruments that we utilize?” We’re all looking for the same dream. We’re all looking for that physical, spiritual, philosophic personal center that we all inhabit. But we’re not looking in the right places. We’re looking outside of ourselves rather than looking in.”
Listen to the full interview with R. Carlos Nakai on “Transformation Highway” with John Malkin on Thursday, January 21 at noon on KZSC 88.1 FM / kzsc.org.