Post by blackcrowheart on Nov 11, 2006 20:36:59 GMT -5
It's time for Indians
Big breakthrough eludes aboriginal music industry Wed Nov 8 2006 Don
Marks
www.winnipegfreepress.com/westview/story/3763896p-4353093c.html
<http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/westview/story/3763896p-4353093c.html>
BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSVince Fontaine, J. Bodner and Bruce
Fontaine of Eagle & Hawk: confined to the ethnic bin. THE aboriginal
music industry has come a long way but it has a long way to go. The top
rung on the ladder to success was reached with the Manito Ahbee award
show at the MTS Centre. A live and video spectacular that was highly
entertaining and well-attended, the Ahbees let those of us who chose to
notice that there is a huge wealth of traditional and contemporary
aboriginal musical talent out there. But the real breakthrough is yet
to come. Aboriginal entertainers have yet to make a huge impact in the
mainstream music market. Canada's premier music award show, the Junos,
still gives top honours to the Shania Twains and Tragically Hips while
aboriginal artists compete for a special "Music from Aboriginal Canada"
award. Twain, the Hip and American entertainers dominate the playlists
of Canada's top radio stations while we have to tune in to NCI-FM
(Native Communications Inc.) to hear the rock, country, hip hop and
traditional music of aboriginal people. Rackjobbers at record stores
put the latest album from Shania on the front bins while Shayne
Yellowbird and Eagle & Hawk are confined to the "First Nations" or
"Folk" or "Ethnic" or "World Music" bins. Having lived with and worked
with two of Canada's best aboriginal rockers, Derek Miller and Aaron
Peters, I can tell you that some of their material is every bit as good
as the Hip, or Rolling Stones for that matter, but it's only being heard
by the aboriginal market or the people who actively search for it.
[http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/images/dot.gif] [Click here...]
There have been some breakthroughs by aboriginal entertainers in the
past but they can't compare to say, the British Invasion or the Motown
success stories. Buffy Sainte-Marie scored some airplay with Indian
Cowboy in the Rodeo and Country Girl, but her biggest hits were recorded
by Frank Sinatra (Until It's Time For You To Go) and Joe cocker/Jennifer
Warren (Up Where We Belong). Universal Soldier labelled Buffy as a
protest folk singer and then she got famous as the Indian on Sesame
Street. Elvis Presley and Wayne Newton are Indians, but who knew?
Johnny Cash broke out with The Ballad of Ira Hayes (a story now being
told by Clint Eastwood in the movie Flags of Our Fathers). The biggest
"red" success story was Redbone, who sold 12 million copies of Come and
Get Your Love and scored another gold record with Witch Queen of New
Orleans. But was anybody aware that the choruses in these songs were
stylized Yacqui chants? Like some black music, which combines African
rhythms with modern rock production, aboriginal music is truly unique.
Indian drum rhythms (the heartbeat of Mother Earth) and chants have
rocked North America for 10,000 years. Buffy used these to create
Starwalker -- a rock song that is my personal favourite, of all rock
songs. Anybody else? Aboriginal music is "micro-tonal" (i.e. there are
notes between the notes). Their rhythms go way beyond 4/4 or 2/4 time to
9/5 time. The very best aboriginal songs combine these tones and rhythms
with contemporary rock stylings to create immortal rock chants like
Indian Car by Keith Secola and his Wild Band of Indians. Have you heard
it? This lack of attention to an incredible wealth of talent and
material is reflected in our television and film industries. Back in
1987, the only Indians you saw on TV were dancing powwow in buckskin and
beads, protesting something, or living in poverty and despair on the Rez
or Main Street. Shingoose and I produced a variety show called Indian
Time which presented Buffy doing nothing but rock music, a standup comic
named Charlie Hill, and contemporary comedy sketches about an Indian
couple trying to raise their children in their downtown apartment. I
recall the reaction by the late Pip Wedge, head of acquisitions at CTV,
when he finished viewing our tape. "What a relief, Don. When I first saw
the title Indian Time, I thought it was gonna be another slow-moving,
preachy, lecturing, guilt-ridden documentary. I never saw Indians like
this before. How much do you want for it?" I asked him what he pays for
an Anne Murray special and demanded the same. Pip paid the price and
Indian Time aired on CTV on a Sunday night in prime time. But Indian
times are few and far between. CBC used to present the Aboriginal
Achievement Awards in prime time, however, the credibility of the show's
producer, John Kim Bell, came into question, and while the idea remains
credible, the awards are now shown on APTN (CBC doesn't like
"questions"). There's a lot of good programming on APTN. But the ratings
for this unique network languish, partly because the CRTC, while placing
it on mandatory basic cable, shunted it to channel 75 in most places,
but mostly, because mainstream Canadians simply are not checking it out.
I'm hoping and praying for an "Aboriginal invasion." Kashtin and Susan
Aglukark have made a dent but alas, an aboriginal hasn't stepped up to
the podium at the Junos in the mainstream categories yet. I have been
blessed to find this wealth of aboriginal talent and I'm finding new
stuff all the time. For example, I'll be working with a guy named Stevie
Salas soon. A Mescalaro Apache, Stevie has recorded over a dozen albums,
but he is most known, if at all, as being lead guitarist for Rod Stewart
for three years, doing lead guitar work on Mick Jagger's solo album and
fronting for Sass Jordan. I had never heard of him until Brandon Friesen
of Arbor Records introduced me. There is just so much out there that
even a person as involved as I am can't keep up. But it's worth looking
for. And maybe, one day, Adam Beach will get a part in some Hollywood
teen flick where he's just the "good-looking guy next door." Not an
Indian like Squanto or Ira Hayes. Just a human being who can act. But
that's the next breakthrough, I guess. Don Marks is a filmmaker based
in Winnipeg and formerly managed the C-Weed Band and Aaron Peters.
Big breakthrough eludes aboriginal music industry Wed Nov 8 2006 Don
Marks
www.winnipegfreepress.com/westview/story/3763896p-4353093c.html
<http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/westview/story/3763896p-4353093c.html>
BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSVince Fontaine, J. Bodner and Bruce
Fontaine of Eagle & Hawk: confined to the ethnic bin. THE aboriginal
music industry has come a long way but it has a long way to go. The top
rung on the ladder to success was reached with the Manito Ahbee award
show at the MTS Centre. A live and video spectacular that was highly
entertaining and well-attended, the Ahbees let those of us who chose to
notice that there is a huge wealth of traditional and contemporary
aboriginal musical talent out there. But the real breakthrough is yet
to come. Aboriginal entertainers have yet to make a huge impact in the
mainstream music market. Canada's premier music award show, the Junos,
still gives top honours to the Shania Twains and Tragically Hips while
aboriginal artists compete for a special "Music from Aboriginal Canada"
award. Twain, the Hip and American entertainers dominate the playlists
of Canada's top radio stations while we have to tune in to NCI-FM
(Native Communications Inc.) to hear the rock, country, hip hop and
traditional music of aboriginal people. Rackjobbers at record stores
put the latest album from Shania on the front bins while Shayne
Yellowbird and Eagle & Hawk are confined to the "First Nations" or
"Folk" or "Ethnic" or "World Music" bins. Having lived with and worked
with two of Canada's best aboriginal rockers, Derek Miller and Aaron
Peters, I can tell you that some of their material is every bit as good
as the Hip, or Rolling Stones for that matter, but it's only being heard
by the aboriginal market or the people who actively search for it.
[http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/images/dot.gif] [Click here...]
There have been some breakthroughs by aboriginal entertainers in the
past but they can't compare to say, the British Invasion or the Motown
success stories. Buffy Sainte-Marie scored some airplay with Indian
Cowboy in the Rodeo and Country Girl, but her biggest hits were recorded
by Frank Sinatra (Until It's Time For You To Go) and Joe cocker/Jennifer
Warren (Up Where We Belong). Universal Soldier labelled Buffy as a
protest folk singer and then she got famous as the Indian on Sesame
Street. Elvis Presley and Wayne Newton are Indians, but who knew?
Johnny Cash broke out with The Ballad of Ira Hayes (a story now being
told by Clint Eastwood in the movie Flags of Our Fathers). The biggest
"red" success story was Redbone, who sold 12 million copies of Come and
Get Your Love and scored another gold record with Witch Queen of New
Orleans. But was anybody aware that the choruses in these songs were
stylized Yacqui chants? Like some black music, which combines African
rhythms with modern rock production, aboriginal music is truly unique.
Indian drum rhythms (the heartbeat of Mother Earth) and chants have
rocked North America for 10,000 years. Buffy used these to create
Starwalker -- a rock song that is my personal favourite, of all rock
songs. Anybody else? Aboriginal music is "micro-tonal" (i.e. there are
notes between the notes). Their rhythms go way beyond 4/4 or 2/4 time to
9/5 time. The very best aboriginal songs combine these tones and rhythms
with contemporary rock stylings to create immortal rock chants like
Indian Car by Keith Secola and his Wild Band of Indians. Have you heard
it? This lack of attention to an incredible wealth of talent and
material is reflected in our television and film industries. Back in
1987, the only Indians you saw on TV were dancing powwow in buckskin and
beads, protesting something, or living in poverty and despair on the Rez
or Main Street. Shingoose and I produced a variety show called Indian
Time which presented Buffy doing nothing but rock music, a standup comic
named Charlie Hill, and contemporary comedy sketches about an Indian
couple trying to raise their children in their downtown apartment. I
recall the reaction by the late Pip Wedge, head of acquisitions at CTV,
when he finished viewing our tape. "What a relief, Don. When I first saw
the title Indian Time, I thought it was gonna be another slow-moving,
preachy, lecturing, guilt-ridden documentary. I never saw Indians like
this before. How much do you want for it?" I asked him what he pays for
an Anne Murray special and demanded the same. Pip paid the price and
Indian Time aired on CTV on a Sunday night in prime time. But Indian
times are few and far between. CBC used to present the Aboriginal
Achievement Awards in prime time, however, the credibility of the show's
producer, John Kim Bell, came into question, and while the idea remains
credible, the awards are now shown on APTN (CBC doesn't like
"questions"). There's a lot of good programming on APTN. But the ratings
for this unique network languish, partly because the CRTC, while placing
it on mandatory basic cable, shunted it to channel 75 in most places,
but mostly, because mainstream Canadians simply are not checking it out.
I'm hoping and praying for an "Aboriginal invasion." Kashtin and Susan
Aglukark have made a dent but alas, an aboriginal hasn't stepped up to
the podium at the Junos in the mainstream categories yet. I have been
blessed to find this wealth of aboriginal talent and I'm finding new
stuff all the time. For example, I'll be working with a guy named Stevie
Salas soon. A Mescalaro Apache, Stevie has recorded over a dozen albums,
but he is most known, if at all, as being lead guitarist for Rod Stewart
for three years, doing lead guitar work on Mick Jagger's solo album and
fronting for Sass Jordan. I had never heard of him until Brandon Friesen
of Arbor Records introduced me. There is just so much out there that
even a person as involved as I am can't keep up. But it's worth looking
for. And maybe, one day, Adam Beach will get a part in some Hollywood
teen flick where he's just the "good-looking guy next door." Not an
Indian like Squanto or Ira Hayes. Just a human being who can act. But
that's the next breakthrough, I guess. Don Marks is a filmmaker based
in Winnipeg and formerly managed the C-Weed Band and Aaron Peters.