Nakai is a hammer in the Native American flute world.
5
By Dick - FluteFlights.com
True Native American flute sound – 5 STARS: R. Carlos Nakai is like Andre Segovia who made the classical guitar popular again, or Pablo Casals who revived the cello played as a solo instrument. Nakai is a hammer in the Native American flute world. Nakai got his masters in classical trumpet, and only accidentally fell into the Native American flute world when a friend gave him one as a gift. Lucky us! Nakai plays with such confidence it makes you sweat! In Mythic Dreamer he plays extemporaneously. Some of the melodies are absolutely stunning. Track 1, Corn Grinding Song, is so beautiful that I’ve played it a gazillion times on my own flutes. I even laid it down for a friend’s Reiki instruction album. It’s just one of those tunes that hooks you hard on the first note and won’t let you go. Track 5, Elk Dreamer’s Song, leaves us with a vision that the Elk is carefully stepping through the forest, each step carefully laid down. And when he hits the high notes, it’s as if the elk is speaking with joy to the god that created it. Track 6, The Great Mystery That Hears Me, shifts us from the elk’s perspective of why it’s here, to why we, as humans, are here. The tune, especially in the higher register, calls to the Great Mystery that Nakai thinks must surely be there. And when the tune finishes, we feel that same mysterious presence. Beautiful. Track 8, Antelope Song, calls to us big time. Again using the higher register to hook us like he does in Corn Grinding Song, Nakai puts us in places we didn’t think we could ever visit.
My favorite tune is Corn Grinding Song, the first tune on the album, but the album has many other stunning examples of just what the Native American flute is capable of as Nakai not once wanders out of the simple Pentatonic scale. His trills, glissandos, barks, howls, and flourishes are flawless. A great album. If I could give it 10 STARS, I would. In a New York heartbeat.
Dick – FluteFlights.com
