http://www.leadertelegram.com/story-features.asp?id=BH2PHJS8E1J

Updated: 7/2/2008 11:47:01 PM

UW-EC to host Native American flute convention

By Troy Espe
Leader-Telegram staff

Aclassically trained trumpet player, R. Carlos Nakai was involved in a car
crash in 1970 while serving in the Navy. The early morning wreck smashed
his face and damaged his mouth, jeopardizing his ability to play the
trumpet.

"I thought my career was at an end," Nakai, 62, said.

Years later, he acquired a traditional Comanche flute. The instrument
revitalized his music career and awakened his Navajo-Ute ancestry.

"It got me a little bit more directed to paying more attention to my own
native heritage," Nakai said during a telephone interview from his summer
home in Montrose, Colo. "I've been doing a lot of research about music and
native cultures and its use spiritually and socially."

With more than 4 million albums sold, Nakai is regarded as the world's
eminent Native American flutist. He co-founded the International Native
American Flute Association, which will hold its biennial convention next
week at UW-Eau Claire.

The five-day conference will feature workshops, vendors and nightly
concerts by the biggest names in Native American flute music. Artists
scheduled to appear include Bill Miller, Michael Graham Allen, Peter
Phippen and Kevin Locke. Nakai will play Saturday, July 12.

"It's intoxicating. It's an overload of music and culture," said Kathleen
Joyce-Grendahl, executive director of the International Native American
Flute Association. "It's an experience they won't forget."

Many flutists credit Nakai for ushering American Indian music into the
mainstream. Nakai downplays the distinction.

"All I did was give them a reliable road map to go on," he said. "I did
nothing to get them to where they are today except give them that road
map."

Originally producing cassettes in his home, Nakai has released more than 35
albums since 1983. Two albums have been certified gold. He has been
nominated for eight Grammy Awards. His music has been featured in movies
"The New World" and "Geronimo: An American Legend."

Nakai, who holds a master's degree in American Indian studies from the
University of Arizona, said he gleans inspiration from natural and urban
settings.

"Much of my creative process is to listen very carefully to whatever
environment I'm in, and that could be anywhere," he said. "I'm headed to
New York. So I may be going down to the financial district and listening to
the canyons and the wind and all the wildlife that's there in the middle of
the city. Or I could be here in Colorado sitting in the aspens and the
spruce. I find inspiration with children playing, animals making noise,
traffic, whatever. It just sparks something in me."

Nakai, of Tucson, Ariz., shares his flute knowledge with others.He has
conducted workshops since 1986. Participants range in age from 10 to 70.
Some have no musical experience.

"My basic philosophy is that everyone should be able to play music," Nakai
said. "When we're born, we begin singing. We spend most of our lives trying
to sing as young people, but of course we usually we get smashed back down
by someone commenting, 'Don't ever think of going into music as a career.'
"

Nakai also has spread his talent among many musical genres. He has played
with more than 15 orchestras. He formed a jazz ensemble. He has recorded
with musicians from Tibet, Japan, Hawaii and the Middle East.

"I deal primarily with life experiences and going to other communities and
saying, 'My culture is like yours,' " Nakai said of his international
travels. "When you get back down to earth-based thinking, we're all very
similar."

Musicians from different backgrounds are embracing the Native American
flute. However, flute music is struggling in American Indian communities,
Nakai said.

"Traditional music is getting smaller and smaller every year because we
don't participate in the older social and spiritual activities that we once
had," he said. "I would encourage many natives that it's time that we start
sharing the knowledge that we still carry about being in the world."

Espe can be reached at 833-9206, 800-236-7077 or troy.espe@....