Free Native Flute Music Downloads at Amazon

I discovered this free offering from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003IZD5V0/ref=nosim/?tag=fatwalletcom&linkCode=as1

Not sure how long it will last, so download it while you can.

Bay Area HangHang Trio

The Green Music Network presents:

Bay Area H A n g h a N G Trio

WHEN: Fri Dec 18th, 2009
TIME: 9 PM
WHERE: 3030 Ingalls, SF, 94124

LUNA GROOVE - SOULSTICE BONFIRE FRIDAY, DEC 18TH 8pm to 3am
Donation toward the talent: $15 at door
Featuring:
Alan Tower
hang, waterphone, bilma, steel angels
Aharon Wheels Bolsta
hang, bansuri, tabla, udu, ehecatl
Gary Muszynski
hang, udu, water phone, steel angel, shakers

LUNA GROOVE - SOULSTICE BONFIRE : House Concert and Brazilified Dance Party

Celebrate Soulstice at the Bayview Winery, for a secret get-away in the city!! Enjoy brilliant music, sweet beats for dance, the magical garden, blazing bonfire circle and potluck kitche followed by the Genie, a virtuoso scratch-guitarist that will set the groove in motion. Then DJ Jazzy Fausto's Brazilified beats at 11pm for your dancing pleasure, with surprise guests to take everyone into the dark night. Fire dancers are very welcome!! Bring something to share and your instruments for fire circle fun!

For more information:
http://www.hangrhapsody.com/The_HANG.html
http://www.greenmusicnetwork.org/gmn/index.html

Jam time!

I was searching around on the internet for Jam tracks as part of an upcoming project that I am putting together. (Make sure that you're planning on attending the upcoming Loping Wolf / NCFC Winter gathering in December!). While checking out various sites, I stumbled on this cool site with various jam tracks in what they call the "Jam Machine". So grab your flutes, and don't plan on going to bed until late tonight! (becuase I guarantee that you'll be up late playing with this...)

Key G: http://www.jamcenter.com/jammachineg.html
Try the "Rock" or "Ballad" settings with a E flute
Try the "Funk" or "Blues" settings with a G flute.

Key C: http://www.jamcenter.com/jammachinec.html
Try the "Ballad" or "Major" settings with an A flute

Key A: http://www.jamcenter.com/jammachinea.html
Try the "Jazz", "Blues" or the "Cool" settings with an A flute

Key E: http://www.jamcenter.com/jammachinee.html
Try the "Rock", "Cool" and the "Blues settings with an E flute

If you find other sites, please let me know.

Clint Goss Jam Tracks in G Minor

Clint Goss is busy doing the final mastering of his the second in his series of Jam Track CD's designed to enable you to play along with (jam) the tracks. This latest album is due out in January, and you can download two of the tracks now from his website, to give you a taste of the type of music which will be available in the final production.

The first title released was "Jam Tracks in A minor".

This new releases extends that to tunes written for a G minor flute. I applaud Clint for pulling together a compilation of tracks written for a specific flute key. This makes it a better investment for new players who may only have a single flute to chose the appropriate CD.

To download the two free tracks, click here:

• Samba of the Phoenix
• Powwow Sunrise

50th Annual Grammy Awards Announced

And the nominees are (envelope please...):

Best Native American Music Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)

• Oklahoma Style
  Walter Ahhaitty & Friends
  [SOAR]


• Watch This Dancer!
  Black Lodge
  [Canyon Records]


• The Ballad Of Old Times
  Davis Mitchell
  [SOAR]


• Reconnections
  R. Carlos Nakai, Cliff Sarde, William Eaton & Randy Wood
  [Canyon Records]


• Totemic Flute Chants
  Johnny Whitehorse
  [Silver Wave Records]
  
  

Best New Age Album
(Vocal or Instrumental.)

• Faces Of The Sun
  Peter Kater
  [Silver Wave Records]


• Sacred Journey Of Ku -Kai, Volume 3
  Kitaro
  [Domo Records, Inc]


• One Guitar
  Ottmar Liebert
  [Spiral Subwave Records]


• Southwest
  Eric Tingstad
  [Cheshire Records]


• Crestone
  Paul Winter Consort
  [Living Music]

For a complete listing: http://www.grammy.com/Grammy_Awards/50th_show/list.aspx

INAFA Convention 2008 Announced

Here is an update concerning the 2008 International Native American Flute Association convention to be held at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point on July 9-13, 2008.

The evening performers list is as follows, thus far ... (each evening features three performers):

• R. Carlos Nakai
• Kevin Locke Joseph Fire Crow
• Sonny Nevaquaya
• Michael Graham Allen (Coyote Oldman)
• Xavier Quijas Yxayotl
• Ash Dargan
• Autumn's Child
• The Peter Phippen Quartet
• Rafael Bejarano
• FIFTH WORLD: The New World Music of Will Clipman, Ash Dargan, and Andrew Begay

So it looks like there will be several group performances at the next INAFA convention. This should be a very entertaining event.

INAFA welcomes performance, presentation, and workshop proposals on a variety of subjects dealing with world music, world flutes, Native American music, Native American culture, Native American flutes, and anything that is of interest to their membership and the convention participants.

For further information, please visit the INAFA Web site at: http://www.inafa.org/2008convention.htm

New Pandora Music Service

Clint Goss posted this on the flute email list, and it's a great way to create your own custom online music radio. It's called Pandora. If you like to listen to music at work (or home), then you simply create a new "radio station" by telling it what artists you like. It will then start streaming music to your computer. As the music plays, you can give each song a "thumbs up" or a "thumbs down" to tell it that you like or don't like the song playing. A thumbs up will keep the song in rotation and help the service locate other songs/music like the one you liked. A thumbs down removes the song from rotation and discourages the service from playing similar songs. Two thumbs down to the same artist and they are 'banned' from your 'radio station'.

I've created a couple sample radio stations to test it. Here's the Radio Stations which I created and the behavior of the selected tunes. Note that selecting an artist doesn't necessarily play all of the songs from their album(s). The first song it plays is from the selected artist, then it begins to play related music.

For example: I started with "Mary Youngblood" and it played the first song from her album: "Feed the Fire". The following songs it chose to play were from a more folk, vocal, guitar genre, not Native American Music. Not exactly what I wanted.
The second example I chose was R. Carlos Nakai. This choice seemed to produce a station with Native American Flute music in the likes of Robert Tree Cody
Choosing "Peter Kater" created a station of new age piano music including David Lanz, Jim Brickman, etc.
If you want to try a different path, you can select from their Genre list for a different variety of music.

Here's the link: http://www.pandora.com/

I haven't been listening long, but I already like it. You are required to create an account after a short period of listening, but it's free. You do have to provide your birth year, zip code and gender when registering, but this is used to target the advertising which plays at the bottom of the website (I clipped it from my screenshot above, I didn't want to advertise for them....)

Looks like you can also pay a $36 per year fee to get it without the advertising.

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(music_service)

If you discover some interesting radio station, post a comment with the artist(s) which you selected.

Jonny Lipford on YouTube

Here's a video of Jonny Lipford on YouTube. Jonny has been the moderator for Mary Youngblood's Yahoo Listserv, and he just released his first album.

Native American Music Awards Voting now open

Don't forget that voting is now open for the Ninth Annual Native American Music Awards. The show is taking place on Saturday, October 6th, 2007 at the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel in Niagara Falls, NY. Special guests at this years event include Native American flute players: Mary Youngblood, Michael Searching Bear and Jeff Ball.

On the site you can listen to clips of music which have been nominated for awards. Or you can click here to popup the standalone music player in your browser

Of course our very own Mary Youngblood has been nominated this year for Artist of the Year and Record of the Year with "Dance with the Wind". Dance with the Wind is Mary's best work to date and I think that it should easily take Record of the Year awards. Mary continues to push herself to new places and this record illustrates her musical ability, both as a composer and a musician.

For flutist of the year I would highly recommend Evren Ozan or Robert Tree Cody.

For Best New Age Recording I would recommend either “Ananeah” Arvel Bird, William Eaton, Mary Redhouse, Will Clipman or “Heart of the Wind” Robert Tree Cody & Will Clipman

And for Best Male Vocalist and/or Best Pop Recording, you have to listen to Michael Jacobs. I just love his songwriting and composition.

To vote, goto the NAMMY Voting Site you don't need to log-in, you can simply vote, but only once on any given computer. Once you complete the voting for a category, you'll be able to see the results immediately.

Some excellent examples of learning to play Guitar or Banjo

I discovered the following links to some online books about learning to play the Guitar and the Banjo. As a music instructor, I found them very interesting in both how they are structured as well as the marketing of the books with Creative Commons licensing.

If you've always wanted to learn how to play that guitar (or banjo) that's been sitting in the corner gathering dust, check this out:

The How and Tao of Folk Guitar: http://tangiersound.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/folk-guitar1.pdf

If you've always wanted to learn how to play the banjo, here's another link:

The How and Tao of Old Time Banjo: http://www.ezfolk.com/banjo/howtao/

Jeff Ball's Electronic Press Kit

Hey all you musicians out there. Check out Jeff Ball's Electronic Press Kit on SonicBid. It's a interesting new way to put your press kit and music online for promoters and others to hear and understand your music.



http://www.sonicbids.com/epk/epk.asp?epk_id=43343



Jeff's website: http://www.jeffball.net/

San Francisco Free Folk Festival

I know that many of you enjoy music of all types. I learned that there is an interesting event this weekend in San Francisco. It's dedicated to folk music. There will be workshops, concerts and the like all day Saturday and Sunday.

Here's the link: http://www.sffolkfest.org/2007/index.html

What: San Francisco Free Folk Festival
When: Sat 6/16 - Sun 6/17/2007
Cost: Free

REVIEW: Ancient Light DVD by Scott August

"This is one music DVD sure to mesmerize the listener with its stunning visuals of the southwest and extraordinary soundtrack." - Mike Oitzman, March 2007

Scott August sent me an early copy of his new DVD: Ancient Light to review last week. I have watched it several times and each time I find myself lost in all of the great images. This DVD combines Scott’s music and his collection of images from the southwest into a stunning multimedia experience.

I have loved Scott’s music since the release of his first album, Distant Spirits. In my view, Scott August is the consummate composer, and his CD’s always take me on a musical journey. I’ve known Scott for many years now and I’ve am excited to see one more imaginative and finely produced product come out of Cedar Mesa Music.

The one talent which I didn’t realize that Scott had, until now, is that of photographer. This disc shows this talent in spectacular detail. Although I imagine that it’s hard to take a bad picture of the many of scenes included in the visuals in this disc, Scott finds a way to make every image amazing. I know that he has taken many, many photo’s of the southwest (check out this link or this link for more pictures by Scott), and I would imagine that the hardest part of this project was editing the pictures down to the one’s included in the final version of the disc.

Probably the best recommendation for this DVD comes from my six year old son who sat down and watched the DVD with me for the first viewing. He was immediately drawn to the music and the visuals and sat on my lap mesmerized while the video played. You’ll find this a great DVD to play in the background for a party, flute circle or any event where you want to enhance the music experience beyond just listening to the CD. I see something new in the pictures every time that I’ve watched it.

If you don’t own any of Scott’s music, this is a great compilation of music from his previously recorded CD’s.

About the Music

The DVD features some of Scott's best music from his previously released CD's:
Here's a list of the song titles:

• Heart of the Sky (from New Fire)
• Earth & Sky (from Sacred Dreams)
• Ceremony (from Sacred Dreams)
• Mockingbird Canyon (from New Fire)
• Yellow Light of Dawn (new)
• Coyote Dance (from Distant Spirits)
• Desert Light (from Distant Spirits)
• Sombre de la Luna (from Sacred Dreams)
• Emergence (from Distant Spirits)

The DVD also includes the following special features:

Southwest Destinations, Commentary by Scott August - in this special feature, Scott shows some of his favorite pictures from the DVD and talks about the things which he likes about the different areas, parks and features of the Southwest. I was especially interested in this part of the DVD since we're planning our trip to Utah this summer.

Animal Dreams, Wildlife of the Southwest - in this special feature, scott includes some of his favorite pictures of animals he has encountered during his travels in the southwest. Each animal picture is accompanied by sound recordings of the animals.

About Scott August - this special feature provides some additional detail about Scott August and his recording career.

You can order your own copy now, by clicking here.

Scott August: Recording your own music

Kudos to Scott August for a recent post about recording your own music.

Here's the link: http://www.cedarmesa.com/blogfiles/recordingyournaf.html

In the article, Scott talks about all of the technology including microphones, audio interfaces and software. He then outlines several options and price levels for buying equipment. If you've been thinking about investing in a home recording studio, you need to read this article first.

I attended a recording workshop which Scott presented several years ago presented by the NCFC, he's a consumate recording artist and it's reflected in the quality of his recording. (By the way if you would be interested in having the NCFC sponsor Scott for another similar workshop, drop me a line... we're planning the 2007 calendar). He does all of his production in his house, on his Apple computer. He records all of his flute recordings in a 4'x4' closet in his office/studio (spare bedroom...). Scott should be an inspiration to everyone who wants to do your own stuff, in your own studio, beginning to end. I am not aware of anyone else out there in this market niche producing the quality of recordings which Scott produces as a one-man shop.

I won't say that Scott records on the cheap, because his day job is composing and recording soundtracks and music for Hollywood movies, commercials, etc., so he has a pretty high end setup. Scott is also a very detail-oriented guy, so I know that he dedicates a lot of time to composition and mixing of his music, getting just the right feel, mood and sound for his compositions.

A World of Drumming - Heart Beats for Tibetan Women

I wanted to invite everyone to come up to Grass Valley on Dec 1 for a very special fundraising event benefitting the Sierra Friends of Tibet Computer Learning Project for the Tibetan Nuns of Jangchub Choeling Nunnery, India.

The event features drumming styles from all corners of the planet including Native American Drumming, Japanese Taiko, Afro-Cuban Bata, East Indian Tabla, Middle Eastern Drumming, Brazilian Capoeira, Celtic Drums and more.

Peformers include:

• Saul Rayo & the Abuellos
• Grass Valley Taiko
• Conga Bya Featuring Bob Scarlett
• Joe Fasen Tabla North Indian Classical Drums
• Capoeira Raca Em Movimento
• Brazilian Capoeira
• Da'Owaga
• Inter-tribal Women’s Drum Group
• Awendes
• Feather River Singers

Where: Center for the Arts, Grass Valley CA
When: Friday Dec 1, 8PM
Cost: $20

Tibetech.org is the 501C3 Non Profit founded by Melanie Sullivan of Sierra Friends of Tibet. Sullivan will be traveling to a remote refugee camp in India in January-February to purchase computers and establish the Sierra Friends of Tibet Computer Learning Lab at the Jangchup Choeling nunnery. Tibetech.org will eventually open web-portals between the camp (which is also home to the visiting monks) and Sierra Friends of Tibet, for telemedicine support, distance learning programs and an entire world of opportunity to move the camp towards sustainability. "Just last month we learned yet again, of another Tibetan nun and children who were shot trying to cross the Himalaya to freedom. Along with compassion, Technology is my weapon of choice in fighting these injustices and we are committed to bringing this project to fruition.

Ash Dargan Concert in Napa

We are less than two weeks away from hosting Ash Dargan in concert in Napa! This event is sponsored by the Northern California Flute Circle and hosted by the NCFC Valley Clan.

Ash Dargan played at the 2006 INAFA convention, and when he said he was interested in coming back to Northern California, we wanted to setup an event for him. If you've ever wanted to learn to play the Didjeridoo, this is your chance! Ash is teaching a an afternoon workshop in Napa on Sunday October 22nd, from 2-4PM. Cost is $25. If you've never played before, loaner didj's will be available at the workshop.

For more info on the workshop contact Brian Revheim at 707-253-1325.

In the evening of Sunday, October 22nd, Ash will be presenting his "Stories of the Wind" program at the Napa Valley Center for Spiritual Living, in Napa. If you missed Ash at the INAFA convention (or even if you had the chance to see him) this is your chance to hear one of the best (in my opinion) Aboriginal story tellers. Ash will have you enthralled, laughing and amazed as he tells stories from the outback. It's an evening not to be missed.

The concert starts at 7:30 PM, cost is $25 per ticket. A portion of the profits will go to the River School Music program.

This event is a fundraising event to buy music equipment for the River School Music Program. We will be having an auction during the event, and all proceeds from the auction will go to the school.

For more information here's a link with complete details: http://www.naflute.com/Concert-flyer-pspcolorNapa2.jpg

Tuvan Thout Singing in Berkeley

Don't miss this chance to see the Tuvan Throut singing group Huun Huur Tu in concert in Berkeley.

Website: http://www.huunhuurtu.com

Where: Ashkenaz, Berkeley, CA http://www.ashkenaz.com/html/list_next.php#1232

When: October 10th, 7:30 PM

Tickets: $15