Native Sounds Downtown! Saxophonist Sharel Cassity presents bebop and more, Thursday, April 11, at the museum in New York

Sharel Cassity. Photo by Michelle Watt, used with permission.

Saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Sharel Cassity will grace the stage of the National Museum of the American Indian in New York next Thursday, April 11, at 6 p.m.  Her phenomenal band will include Greg Gisbert (trumpet), Cyrus Chestnut (piano), Dezron Douglas (bass), and E. J. Strickland (drums). The concert is free and open to the public; invite friends to attend via the museum's Sharel Cassity event page on Facebook.

In 2010, Sharel and the Tony Lujan Septet performed an extraordinary, standing-room-only concert at the museum in Washington, D.C., in tribute to trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and bassist Oscar Pettiford. Dizzy and OP performed together in 1943 and 1944 at New York’s Onyx Club on 52nd Street, and their fertile collaboration was characterized by Dizzy himself as “the birth of the bebop era.” In bebop, complex, asymmetric melodic lines performed on several instruments bracket improvisational, fast-tempo solos that highlight the superb musicianship of each player. Intentionally pursuing the difficult, beboppers freed the music from the page, inverting chord progressions, altering rhythm and scales, experimenting with changes in structure in a poetic display of musical fluency. 

Sharel Cassity (saxophone), Edsel Gomez (piano), Conrad Herwig (trombone), Tony Lujan (trumpet), and Yunior Terry (bass) performing at the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall. 2010, Washington, D.C. Photo by R.A.Whiteside, NMAI.

Today’s jazz musicians continue to make history and push the music forward. Sharel Cassity is particularly known for her breathtaking improvisations, and ability to hold her own with the greats. She has performed with saxophonist Jimmy Heath and trumpeter Roy Hargrove, and recently toured Europe with the Dizzy Gillespie Afro Cuban Experience.  Sharel has released two albums to critical acclaim, Just for You and Relentless. 

Like Oscar Pettiford, Sharel Cassity grew up in Oklahoma, with a musical father of Cherokee heritage. Both Pettiford and Cassity are inductees in the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. Up Where We Belong: Native Americans in Popular Music, a current exhibition at the museum in New York, reveals the broad spectrum of Native musicians who have played transformative roles in many American musical genres. Pettiford is featured in the jazz section of the exhibition; Cassity is writing the next chapter in this moment we are so privileged to share with her. 

The concert on April 11 will give the museum's New York audience the opportunity to experience this exciting music firsthand through Pettiford standards, as well as to enjoy new music and new collaborations.

—Margaret Sagan

Margaret Sagan is Visitor Services manager at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York.

Native Sounds Downtown! with Rob Lamothe, Ryan Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Zander Lamothe, and Rose Lamothe
Thursday, April 11, at 6 p.m.
National Museum of the American Indian in New York

Directions

RSVP & share the event via Facebook 

Native Sounds Downtown! Rob Lamothe & his band pay tribute to American Indian musicians, April 25 at the museum in New York

 

Rob Lamothe and the band, from left to right: Ryan Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Rob Lamothe, Rose Lamothe, and Zander Lamothe. Photo courtesy of the artists. Used with permission.

Last summer singer, songwriter, and producer Rob Lamothe helped kick off the opening of the exhibition Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. He and his band will return to perform at the museum Thursday, April 25, at 6 p.m. Supporting Rob are talented band members bassist Ryan Johnson, guitarist Ronnie Johnson, drummer Zander Lamothe, and vocalist and pianist Rose Lamothe. Together they will take the stage in the Up Where We Belong gallery and pay tribute to the artists featured in the exhibition with a set of iconic songs and some of their own personal favorites. The concert is free and open to the public; invite friends to attend via the museum's Rob Lamothe event page on Facebook. 

For the past 30 years, Rob has enjoyed an award-winning career with songs on the Billboard charts in the U.S. He has shared stages with everyone from Gun 'n' Roses to Ron Sexsmith. His songs are heard on hit TV shows like Melrose Place and the long-running Australian soap opera Paradise Beach. And Rolling Stone Europe has said he's got an "out-of-this-world soulful voice.” 

In the last several years, Rob has devoted much of his musical energy to working with some of North America's pre-eminent Native artists. Rob has recorded with award-winning artist David Maracle (Aboriginal Peoples Choice Awards, Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards, National Aboriginal Achievement Awards, etc). Rob teaches at Interprovincial Music Camp with Juno Award-winner Derek Miller from Six Nations Mohawk territory and internationally renowned guitarist, producer, and American Idol music director Stevie Salas (Apache). Rob's deep commitment to community is reflected in his work with young people from the Nimkee Nupigawagan Healing Centre in Muncey, Ontario, and in his job running the Emergency Housing Program for the province's Haldimand and Norfolk counties.

The band's up-and-coming young bassist Ryan Johnson has opened for musicians Derek Miller, Pappy Johns Band, and others on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border. Inspired by classic rock bands from the ’60s and ’70s, Johnson and his band earned a 2010 Canadian Aboriginal Music Awards nomination.

Guitarist Ronnie Johnson (unrelated to Ryan Johnson) hails from the Six Nations of the Grand River territory, where he grew up hearing blues and rock. By creating music that makes people dance—playing bass, rhythm guitar, and lead guitar with The Blues Brigade and Midnight Lightning for the past five years—Ronnie has “followed in the storied tradition of legendary Six Nations blues musicians.”

Named “Drummer of the Year” at the 2012 Hamilton Music Awards, Zander Lamothe has rocked in numerous Canadian and European tour shows. With his drumming featured behind artists City and Colour, Melissa McClelland, and others, this zealous artist has drummed his way from California to New York.

Beginning her musical career, 16-year-old Rose Lamothe accompanies the band with her singing and piano skills. Rose has been honored to be mentored by musicians such as Bernard Fowler from the Rolling Stones and Donna Grantis from Prince.

The music will kick off at 6 p.m. on the Up Where We Belong gallery stage at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York, located at One Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. This show is guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser and a real treat for visitors who want to experience a concert inside of a gallery surrounded by the history of Native icons of music.   

—Aimee Beltramini

Aimee Beltramini is an intern in the Public Affairs and Visitor Services Departments at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York. 

Native Sounds Downtown! with Rob Lamothe, Ryan Johnson, Ronnie Johnson, Zander Lamothe, and Rose Lamothe
Thursday, April 25, at 6 p.m.
National Museum of the American Indian in New York

Directions

RSVP & share the event via Facebook 

Native Music for the Masses

 

If there are some visitors that are missing the Up Where We Belong: Native Musicians in Popular Culture exhibition that has left the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. – relief has come in the form of the original playlist of music that was featured on the audio tour, courtesy of Rhapsody.com.

For those of you who are not familiar, Up Where We Belong opened in July 2010 in the Sealaska Gallery on the second level which featured 13 artists that influenced music over the course of a century covering various genres of music. The exhibition also featured an audio tour with excerpts from the curators as well as songs from the featured artists.

So all you have to do now is search your local search engine: “rhapsody nmai” or “music nmai.” Better yet, here is the link: http://www.rhapsody.com/member/nmai

I had so much fun re-creating the playlist (that has been so well received) so much that I have the privilege, no the pleasure of creating a few more based on the artists and themes. I have so many ideas, so who knows where this will go. So keep coming back and check up on what’s new.

1. Mildred Bailey - Rocking Chair, written by Hoagy Carmichael.
2. Oscar Pettiford – Monti Cello, by Oscar Pettiford.
3. Russell “Big Chief” Moore - Someday, by Louis Armstrong, with Russell Moore, trombone.
4. Johnny Cash - The Ballad of Ira Hayes, written by Peter La Farge.
5. Peter La Farge - Drums, written and performed by Peter La Farge.
6. Link Wray - Rumble, by Link Wray and His Ray-Men. 1958.
7. Rita Coolidge - Higher and Higher, 1972.
8. Walela - Cherokee Morning Song, Written and performed by Walela, (Rita Coolidge, Priscilla Coolidge, and Laura Satterfield.
9. The Band - The Weight, written by Robbie Robertson, performed by The Band, 1968.
10. Robbie Robertson - Ghost Dance, written and performed by Robbie Robertson.
11. Redbone - Wovoka, written and performed by Redbone. 1973.
12. Redbone - Come and Get Your Love, written by Pat and Lolly Vegas. 1974.
13. Jesse Ed Davis - Doctor, My Eyes, by Jackson Browne, with Jesse Ed Davis, lead guitar. 1972.
14. Taj Mahal (featuring Jesse Ed Davis, lead and slide guitar) - Statesboro Blues. 1968.
15. Buffy Sainte-Marie - Universal Soldier.
16. Buffy Sainte-Marie - No No Keshagesh.
17. Randy Castillo - No More Tears, performed by Ozzy Osborne, with Randy Castillo, drums. 1991.
18. Randy Castillo - Tattooed Dancer, Ozzy Osborne, with Randy Castillo, drums. 1989.
19. Stevie Salas - I Once Was There, by Stevie Salas. 1995.
20. Stevie Salas - Tell Your Story Walkin’ by Stevie Salas. 1995.
21. Jimi Hendrix - Voodoo Child (slight return). 1968.
22. Jimi Hendrix - Little Wing.1967.

Blues Concert and Discussion, Aug. 22 in Washington, DC

The 2009 Indian Summer Showcase concert series will conclude this Saturday with a blues concert and discussion presented in collaboration with the National Museum of African American Heritage and Culture. The concert will showcase Native and African-American blues musicians and celebrate shared musical traditions. http://www.nmai.si.edu/iss/2009/schedule.html

Here’s a preview of blues history from several participants including Ron Welburn and Elaine Bomberry, who will be leading the blues discussion, and Justin Robinson, who will be performing with the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

 

Indians and Early Blues by Ron Welburn

What poet and folklorist Sylvester Brito (Comanche & Tarascan) once described as a “blues aesthetic” for Native American storytelling resonates in the participation of Native performers in blues, jazz, and popular music. This Native blues aesthetic embodies feelings about the survival of Native identity and communities as well as what ’49 songs express about loved ones, snagging, and being away from homelands. The Native heritage of so many blues, jazz, and popular music musicians and singers is practically unknown; the music world and audiences have assumed them to be African American or European American.

The enigmatic “king of the Delta blues,” Charley Patton, was Choctaw; his contemporary, Leon “Scrapper” Blackwell, Eastern Cherokee. From earliest recording days down to the 1970s when more Indians began to assert their cultural identities, an impressive array of Native and Native heritage performers have left their marks on American music, with subtle elemental and structural characteristics of traditional Southeastern and other Native music contributing to blues and jazz styles. In my presentation on blues and Indians, I will offer a perspective that will stimulate our thinking about Native American contributions to African American/American music culture.

 

A Native Influence on the Blues  by Elaine Bomberry

The very little revealed history of the possibility of a Native musical influence on the formation of the early blues is a story you don’t hear much about anywhere.  In most history books written on the blues, there is no mention of the cultural exchange and inter-mix that happened between runaway African slaves and Native Americans, and how this possibly could have led the formation of the early blues.

This Saturday’s discussion will explore the possibilities about a Native contribution to the development of the early blues, and how history intersected Native Americans and runaway slaves in the south.  How do we not know that the sharing of these cultures gave birth to the blues?  The significant Native contribution to the development of the blues is examined as well.  Is there room for this theory in music history today?  

We explore the hidden history, and musical truth of Native peoples and the origins of the blues.  Is there a Native musical influence on the formation of the blues…is there a connection through the Stomp Dance, call and response singing? Is there a valid theory here?  These questions will be addressed in my presentation during “The Blues:  Branches, Roots and Beyond” discussion.

The voices that have emerged who also know that there is a definite Native influence on the blues include Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree, Saskatchewan), who has spoken about the Mardi Gras Indians in New Orleans, and that they are Choctaw and African-American, and are not appropriating Native culture.  Also, Pura Fe (Tuscarora), who’s a solo blues guitarist and singer, has spoken about how the Tuscarora Nation has intermixed with African Americans, and how this could have given birth to the blues.  Segments of “The Aboriginal Music Experience...A Radio Documentary Series” on REZ BLUEZ, will be played during the discussion as well.  [Link to: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=20798640408]

 

Old Time Music’s Native Roots by Justin Robinson of the Carolina Chocolate Drops

www.carolinachocolatedrops.com

The old time music we play mostly comes from North Carolina's Piedmont region which historically had many interactions with a variety of Native peoples, both in the European and African American communities.  One of our mentors, Joe Thompson, was born and raised in Mebane, NC which is also tribal home of the Occaneechi-Saponi Nation. The area of Orange and Alamance Counties were rich in black and Indian practitioners of this music. One such banjo player, Dink Roberts [link to: http://www.folkways.si.edu/albumdetails.aspx?itemID=2411], who was listed as black or mulatto, was probably, in fact, an Occaneechi banjo player, and it seems that his style was influenced greatly by Indian, black, and European styles.

Many of the square dances held in the black and white communities, both in the past and today, have Native underpinnings.  When traveling in a square, the dancers almost always go counterclockwise, which, according to sources, is a Native tradition since the "heart side/mother side" was always to be closest to the center of the ring.  Appalachian step dancing, buck dancing, or flat foot dancing are all varieties of an amalgam of Native, European, and African derived steps, which melded together so early and so completely that at this point it is nearly impossible to distinguish  what comes from whom.  Many of the early blues, R&B, and soul greats boast of blended heritage, as do we, the members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops.  Our musical expressions reflect our New World identities.