Post by Okwes on Feb 8, 2006 10:59:02 GMT -5
From powwow to Rita Coolidge
Compilation was `a gruelling task ... and a spiritual journey'
Feb. 4, 2006. 09:17 AM
www.thestar.com
It started as a simple job.
All Brian Wright-McLeod wanted to do was draft a playlist for a
native radio program he was pitching and prove to producers there was
enough music to carry a weekly two-hour show.
But after he got the gig hosting Renegade Radio on CKLN 88.1 FM in
1992, Wright-McLeod's task grew.
The music journalist had always been passionate about native music,
but the more research he did for his radio show, which still airs
Mondays at 8 p.m., the more he realized there was a wealth of native
music but a dearth of information about it.
So he began collecting, cataloguing and profiling native musicians as
well as travelling to reserves and reservations across North America
to interview artists, medicine men and elders.
The result of his 13-year odyssey is The Encyclopedia of Native
Music, a 450-page book that explores more than a century of
commercially released recordings in all genres of traditional and
mainstream music. It includes biographical entries and discographies
for about 1,800 Inuit, Indian and Metis artists from Greenland,
Canada and the United States.
"This was more than a labour of love," said Wright-McLeod, a Dakota-
Anishnabe Indian who didn't receive any financial support while
researching and writing the book.
"I don't know what kept driving me other than the fact that if I
didn't get it done it would never get done. I felt this huge pressure
just to get it done. It was like an albatross around my neck. It
became a gruelling task after a while and a spiritual journey."
Initially, Wright-McLeod had no idea what format his playlist-turned-
compendium would take, he just knew that some sort of accounting of
native music recordings was needed.
In 1999, he signed a deal with a Canadian music book publisher, but
the deal quickly turned sour. Wright-McLeod said he was able to break
free of the contract with rights and manuscript intact.
The journey to getting his words into print was a lengthy one
involving learning about publishing law and developing a blueprint
for something that had never existed.
The manuscript was shopped around to commercial and university
presses and underwent several reviews by musicologists, academics and
historians.
In the end, the University of Arizona Press offered the best contract.
While it's impossible to create the definitive collection of native
music, the book highlights contributions made by native recording
artists in genres such as chicken scratch, contemporary, powwow,
peyote and traditional. And, most importantly, it recognizes a music
and culture that is often misunderstood.
"Music is a universal thing, but when it comes from an oppressed
culture and people get to see it documented, it breathes life into a
cigar store Indian and you start to feel some compassion for the
people that the cigar store Indian represents," Wright-McLeod said.
When choosing artists to profile, he first focused on recordings by
musicians from reserves and reservations because, as he put it, they
don't enjoy the benefits of white privilege.
"They never get the air play, they never get the recognition, but
they're out there doing it."
Then, he branched out to artists in the mainstream who retained a
strong native identity, such as Buffy Sainte-Marie, Rita Coolidge and
Jesse Ed Davis, and to those who've made great contributions to
native music such as Robbie Robertson and the Red Road Ensemble.
Wright-McLeod also focused on influential jazz and blues musicians,
such as Mildred Bailey, Keely Smith and Oscar Pettiford, who had
native roots only known by their inner circles.
"They might not be known to native people but this is something our
people have contributed to — the enrichment of everybody's lives, not
necessarily because they were native, but because they were there."
The Encyclopedia of Native Music is available at most major
bookstores. There's also a musical companion to the book from EMI
Music Canada, The Soundtrack of a People, a three-CD compilation of
72 tracks ranging from traditional to contemporary native music.
Compilation was `a gruelling task ... and a spiritual journey'
Feb. 4, 2006. 09:17 AM
www.thestar.com
It started as a simple job.
All Brian Wright-McLeod wanted to do was draft a playlist for a
native radio program he was pitching and prove to producers there was
enough music to carry a weekly two-hour show.
But after he got the gig hosting Renegade Radio on CKLN 88.1 FM in
1992, Wright-McLeod's task grew.
The music journalist had always been passionate about native music,
but the more research he did for his radio show, which still airs
Mondays at 8 p.m., the more he realized there was a wealth of native
music but a dearth of information about it.
So he began collecting, cataloguing and profiling native musicians as
well as travelling to reserves and reservations across North America
to interview artists, medicine men and elders.
The result of his 13-year odyssey is The Encyclopedia of Native
Music, a 450-page book that explores more than a century of
commercially released recordings in all genres of traditional and
mainstream music. It includes biographical entries and discographies
for about 1,800 Inuit, Indian and Metis artists from Greenland,
Canada and the United States.
"This was more than a labour of love," said Wright-McLeod, a Dakota-
Anishnabe Indian who didn't receive any financial support while
researching and writing the book.
"I don't know what kept driving me other than the fact that if I
didn't get it done it would never get done. I felt this huge pressure
just to get it done. It was like an albatross around my neck. It
became a gruelling task after a while and a spiritual journey."
Initially, Wright-McLeod had no idea what format his playlist-turned-
compendium would take, he just knew that some sort of accounting of
native music recordings was needed.
In 1999, he signed a deal with a Canadian music book publisher, but
the deal quickly turned sour. Wright-McLeod said he was able to break
free of the contract with rights and manuscript intact.
The journey to getting his words into print was a lengthy one
involving learning about publishing law and developing a blueprint
for something that had never existed.
The manuscript was shopped around to commercial and university
presses and underwent several reviews by musicologists, academics and
historians.
In the end, the University of Arizona Press offered the best contract.
While it's impossible to create the definitive collection of native
music, the book highlights contributions made by native recording
artists in genres such as chicken scratch, contemporary, powwow,
peyote and traditional. And, most importantly, it recognizes a music
and culture that is often misunderstood.
"Music is a universal thing, but when it comes from an oppressed
culture and people get to see it documented, it breathes life into a
cigar store Indian and you start to feel some compassion for the
people that the cigar store Indian represents," Wright-McLeod said.
When choosing artists to profile, he first focused on recordings by
musicians from reserves and reservations because, as he put it, they
don't enjoy the benefits of white privilege.
"They never get the air play, they never get the recognition, but
they're out there doing it."
Then, he branched out to artists in the mainstream who retained a
strong native identity, such as Buffy Sainte-Marie, Rita Coolidge and
Jesse Ed Davis, and to those who've made great contributions to
native music such as Robbie Robertson and the Red Road Ensemble.
Wright-McLeod also focused on influential jazz and blues musicians,
such as Mildred Bailey, Keely Smith and Oscar Pettiford, who had
native roots only known by their inner circles.
"They might not be known to native people but this is something our
people have contributed to — the enrichment of everybody's lives, not
necessarily because they were native, but because they were there."
The Encyclopedia of Native Music is available at most major
bookstores. There's also a musical companion to the book from EMI
Music Canada, The Soundtrack of a People, a three-CD compilation of
72 tracks ranging from traditional to contemporary native music.