Post by blackcrowheart on Sept 10, 2006 21:34:09 GMT -5
Brule, AIRO highlight their heritage
By Suzanne Weiss
Herald Times Reporter
When Paul LaRoche was growing up, he was told he was French-Canadian.
It was a partial truth told by his adoptive parents to protect him from the taunts of other children.
"Back in the '50s or '60s and on up to the '70s, it was not very popular to have Native American ancestry. Most families would hide that information," LaRoche told the Herald Times Reporter in a telephone interview from his home on the Lower Brule Sioux Indian Reservation, 60 miles southeast of Pierre, S.D.
Today, LaRoche has embraced his birth culture and is among a handful of American Indian musicians exploring a combination of traditional and contemporary sounds, in what he calls "one of the last musical frontiers."
LaRoche, known as Brule, and his band, AIRO (American Indian Rock Opera), have become top-selling American Indian recording artists, selling more than a million CDs worldwide.
Brule and AIRO will perform starting at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at Ethnic Festival in downtown Two Rivers. They will appear at the Central Park bandstand with American Indian dancers who will perform dressed in full regalia.
LaRoche signed with a record company in 1995 under the recording name Brule, taken from the Sioux tribe to which he belongs. The name is derived from the French word meaning "burnt."
As band members started to join, the group was called Brule until a few years ago, when the group became AIRO (American Indian Rock Opera). LaRoche is still known as Brule.
The story of how LaRoche became Brule is a fascinating one that he tells in a biography, "Hidden Heritage ... the Story of Paul LaRoche," written by Barbara Marshak and released in July by Beaver's Pond Press of Minneapolis.
LaRoche, 51, discovered his Sioux heritage in 1993, after the death of his adoptive parents.
"My wife, Kathy, she played a very important role in this," LaRoche said. "She was the one who discovered some legal information hidden to me for years. We stumbled across it after going through my parents' belongings."
LaRoche was reunited with a brother, sister and aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews he never knew he had and now makes the South Dakota reservation his home.
The musician discovered rock 'n' roll at an early age, joining his first band at age 15 and releasing his first solo CD in 1975. He gave music up for a period of time in the late 1980s, only to take it up again when he found his roots.
"In 1993, when we finally returned back to the reservation, I began to hear new sounds. We went to the very first powwow here, which is an annual event. I listened to the sounds and watched the dances. It was a new sound. I had never heard much of it before," LaRoche said.
"Inside my head, I heard a new sound that was kind of a combination of the music that I grew up with and the music that I am hearing now on the reservation."
His wife and newly found family encouraged him to return to music.
"Now I could go out back into the world musically, so to speak, and be a role model for the culture, so that became my mission," LaRoche said.
Traditional American Indian sounds often have a heavy beat and incorporate the wooden flute, drums and chanting.
Contemporary American Indian music is a new form of that music, incorporating rock, blues and classical sounds with the help of guitar and electronic keyboard.
"It's so new it's just being recognized now by what I call the mainstream entertainment world," LaRoche said.
The music is instrumental, with some vocalization in the form of chants or short phrases.
"I try not to make it too overwhelming. I try to make it easy to listen to," LaRoche said.
"I'm also careful with the traditional part that I blend in there. Some of the traditional music is still considered to be what I would call sacred so you don't want to ... exploit that part of it. I do try to use a lot of respect when I use the traditional sounds."
The group includes Paul LaRoche on keyboards; his daughter, Nicole, on flute; son Shane on guitar; and Moses Brings Plenty of Omaha, Neb., a member of the Oglala Sioux Nation of Pine Ridge, S.D., on traditional drums and percussion.
Paul's wife, Kathy, is the group's artistic and business manager, booking agent, photographer, video-grapher and executive producer.
Brule and AIRO were honored at the eighth annual Native American Music Awards at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Fla., in June.
Brule won Best Compilation for his release, "The Collection," and AIRO was awarded Group of the Year for "Tatanka," produced by Shane. Tatanka means "buffalo."
The group, in its 11th year, plans to release its 10th major CD in fall.
Brule has appeared on numerous televisions shows, including "Regis and Kathie Lee" and "CNN WorldBeat."
The band gives more than 150 performances each year and has played at Ethnic Festival in the past. Its seventh annual holiday tour this fall and winter will include a show in Milwaukee, LaRoche said.
Festival features variety
"We have a good variety of acts," said Michael Zimmer, director of the Two Rivers Main Street program, instrumental in organizing the festival.
"We decided on Brule by popular acclaim because they have such a following and so many people asked for them to come back."
The rest of the program is filled with unique musical acts from nearby cities, he said.
Opening the entertainment at 9 a.m. will be Atahualpa from Minneapolis, a band that plays music from places like Brazil, Chile, Panama and Peru.
Their style is an "update of traditional Andean and South American flute and rhythm," Zimmer said.
Navan, a Celtic a cappella group from Madison, will perform at 10:30 a.m.
"They're going to sing traditional Celtic songs and talk between songs about where (the songs) originated and how the settlers brought the songs with them," Zimmer said.
Cashel Dennehy School of Irish Dance from Milwaukee will present a program at noon.
The program will be similar to the type of dance one might see in "Riverdance," Zimmer said.
Omo-Ana: Children of the Spirit Drum will feature 10 to 15 drummers at 1:30 p.m.
"Omo-Ana is a professor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee interested in West African rhythms and drums," Zimmer said. "They're going to demonstrate the origins of some of the drum rhythms that people would be familiar with today."
Ethnic Festival kicks off at 9 a.m. with a parade of nations, featuring children marching with flags from different nations.
The festival will feature 15 ethnic food vendors and 95 craft booths.
Suzanne Weiss: 920-686-2140 or sweiss@htrnews.com
By Suzanne Weiss
Herald Times Reporter
When Paul LaRoche was growing up, he was told he was French-Canadian.
It was a partial truth told by his adoptive parents to protect him from the taunts of other children.
"Back in the '50s or '60s and on up to the '70s, it was not very popular to have Native American ancestry. Most families would hide that information," LaRoche told the Herald Times Reporter in a telephone interview from his home on the Lower Brule Sioux Indian Reservation, 60 miles southeast of Pierre, S.D.
Today, LaRoche has embraced his birth culture and is among a handful of American Indian musicians exploring a combination of traditional and contemporary sounds, in what he calls "one of the last musical frontiers."
LaRoche, known as Brule, and his band, AIRO (American Indian Rock Opera), have become top-selling American Indian recording artists, selling more than a million CDs worldwide.
Brule and AIRO will perform starting at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, at Ethnic Festival in downtown Two Rivers. They will appear at the Central Park bandstand with American Indian dancers who will perform dressed in full regalia.
LaRoche signed with a record company in 1995 under the recording name Brule, taken from the Sioux tribe to which he belongs. The name is derived from the French word meaning "burnt."
As band members started to join, the group was called Brule until a few years ago, when the group became AIRO (American Indian Rock Opera). LaRoche is still known as Brule.
The story of how LaRoche became Brule is a fascinating one that he tells in a biography, "Hidden Heritage ... the Story of Paul LaRoche," written by Barbara Marshak and released in July by Beaver's Pond Press of Minneapolis.
LaRoche, 51, discovered his Sioux heritage in 1993, after the death of his adoptive parents.
"My wife, Kathy, she played a very important role in this," LaRoche said. "She was the one who discovered some legal information hidden to me for years. We stumbled across it after going through my parents' belongings."
LaRoche was reunited with a brother, sister and aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews he never knew he had and now makes the South Dakota reservation his home.
The musician discovered rock 'n' roll at an early age, joining his first band at age 15 and releasing his first solo CD in 1975. He gave music up for a period of time in the late 1980s, only to take it up again when he found his roots.
"In 1993, when we finally returned back to the reservation, I began to hear new sounds. We went to the very first powwow here, which is an annual event. I listened to the sounds and watched the dances. It was a new sound. I had never heard much of it before," LaRoche said.
"Inside my head, I heard a new sound that was kind of a combination of the music that I grew up with and the music that I am hearing now on the reservation."
His wife and newly found family encouraged him to return to music.
"Now I could go out back into the world musically, so to speak, and be a role model for the culture, so that became my mission," LaRoche said.
Traditional American Indian sounds often have a heavy beat and incorporate the wooden flute, drums and chanting.
Contemporary American Indian music is a new form of that music, incorporating rock, blues and classical sounds with the help of guitar and electronic keyboard.
"It's so new it's just being recognized now by what I call the mainstream entertainment world," LaRoche said.
The music is instrumental, with some vocalization in the form of chants or short phrases.
"I try not to make it too overwhelming. I try to make it easy to listen to," LaRoche said.
"I'm also careful with the traditional part that I blend in there. Some of the traditional music is still considered to be what I would call sacred so you don't want to ... exploit that part of it. I do try to use a lot of respect when I use the traditional sounds."
The group includes Paul LaRoche on keyboards; his daughter, Nicole, on flute; son Shane on guitar; and Moses Brings Plenty of Omaha, Neb., a member of the Oglala Sioux Nation of Pine Ridge, S.D., on traditional drums and percussion.
Paul's wife, Kathy, is the group's artistic and business manager, booking agent, photographer, video-grapher and executive producer.
Brule and AIRO were honored at the eighth annual Native American Music Awards at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Fla., in June.
Brule won Best Compilation for his release, "The Collection," and AIRO was awarded Group of the Year for "Tatanka," produced by Shane. Tatanka means "buffalo."
The group, in its 11th year, plans to release its 10th major CD in fall.
Brule has appeared on numerous televisions shows, including "Regis and Kathie Lee" and "CNN WorldBeat."
The band gives more than 150 performances each year and has played at Ethnic Festival in the past. Its seventh annual holiday tour this fall and winter will include a show in Milwaukee, LaRoche said.
Festival features variety
"We have a good variety of acts," said Michael Zimmer, director of the Two Rivers Main Street program, instrumental in organizing the festival.
"We decided on Brule by popular acclaim because they have such a following and so many people asked for them to come back."
The rest of the program is filled with unique musical acts from nearby cities, he said.
Opening the entertainment at 9 a.m. will be Atahualpa from Minneapolis, a band that plays music from places like Brazil, Chile, Panama and Peru.
Their style is an "update of traditional Andean and South American flute and rhythm," Zimmer said.
Navan, a Celtic a cappella group from Madison, will perform at 10:30 a.m.
"They're going to sing traditional Celtic songs and talk between songs about where (the songs) originated and how the settlers brought the songs with them," Zimmer said.
Cashel Dennehy School of Irish Dance from Milwaukee will present a program at noon.
The program will be similar to the type of dance one might see in "Riverdance," Zimmer said.
Omo-Ana: Children of the Spirit Drum will feature 10 to 15 drummers at 1:30 p.m.
"Omo-Ana is a professor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee interested in West African rhythms and drums," Zimmer said. "They're going to demonstrate the origins of some of the drum rhythms that people would be familiar with today."
Ethnic Festival kicks off at 9 a.m. with a parade of nations, featuring children marching with flags from different nations.
The festival will feature 15 ethnic food vendors and 95 craft booths.
Suzanne Weiss: 920-686-2140 or sweiss@htrnews.com