School of Rock
Random article All articles A–Z
2 languages

R. Carlos Nakai

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

R. Carlos Nakai · Raymond Carlos Nakai is an American flautist, born in 1946 in Flagstaff, Arizona, into a family of Navajo and Ute descent. His father was chairman of the Navajo Nation from 1963 to 1970. As a child he listened to tapes for his parents' Navajo radio programme, and on them he heard a recording of William Horn Cloud, a Lakota musician who played the flute. At secondary school he wanted to learn the flute, but was given a cornet instead. Later he played brass in a marching band and served two years in the United States Navy.

Music and breakthrough

After a car accident he could no longer play brass, because his mouth had been damaged. In 1972 he was given a traditional cedar flute, and he taught himself to play it for the most part. His first album, Changes, appeared in 1983. He then signed with Canyon Records, which released more than thirty albums by him, including Earth Spirit (1987), Canyon Trilogy (1989) and Ancestral Voices (1992). His music consists of his own compositions for the flute, inspired by traditional Native American melodies. He collaborated with artists including William Eaton, Peter Kater, Philip Glass, Nawang Khechog, Paul Horn and Keola Beamer, and received eleven Grammy nominations.

Influence

Nakai shows how a traditional instrument found a place in the meditative, spacious music that became big from the 1980s on. His flute sounds soft and breathy, often with little accompaniment around it. He lives in Tucson, Arizona. In School of Rock he appears with Inward Journey from 1989.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Inward Journey. Notice the soft, breathy tone of the cedar flute and the silences between the phrases.

Discography

Studio albums

See also

Categories: ArtistsNative American music