 |
Home
Spanish Classes
Corporate Classes
Translation Services
Art Program
Grady Alexis Gallery
Live World Music
About Us
Taller People
Contact Us
|
|
El Taller Latino Americano
The Latin American Workshop |
|
 |
|
Sunday, May 19 - 6 pm
MUSIC OF THE PEOPLE OF THE EARTH
|
Tonight we will feature music from the earth, represented by two of its masters, Valerie Dee Naranjo and Juan Namuncurá.
Valerie Dee Naranjo has a passion for the simple yet powerful Native American songs of her homeland, and
for the complex yet soulful West African keyboard percussion music that has bonded, healed, and grooved for centuries.
A Colorado native of Ute and Latin descent, she is a specialist on the Gyil (jee-lee), one of the many existing
West African marimbas. This instrument, popular in a remote area of Ghana, holds in its grace and complexity keys
to African harmonic and polyrhythmic concepts.
Ms. Naranjo studied the gyil in Ghana, where in 1988 her playing led to the declaration of a chiefly decree in
the Dagara nation that women be allowed to play the instrument. Also in the same region, in 1996, she and Barry
took a "First Place" in the Kobine Traditional Festival competition, the first non-Ghanaian ever to do so.
In the United States, she received a BA in instrumental and vocal music at the University of Oklahoma and a
Master's in Performance and Ethnomusicology at Ithaca College. She has studied with dozens of masters in
America and Africa, including Leigh Howard Stevens, Gordon Stout, David Samuels,
Ladji Cam´ra, Adama Dr´me and Kakraba Lobi.
She also plays percussion and arranges for the Saturday Night Live Band and has recorded and performed
with the Paul Winter Consort, the Philip Glass Ensemble, David Byrne, Tori Amos, Selena, Airto,
and the international percussion ensemble, MEGADRUMS, which includes Milton Cardona, Zakir Hussein,
and Glen Velez.
Valerie has released five CD's, including the just released Song Of Niira and
Song of Legaa (gyil music with Kakraba Lobi and Barry Olsen), Zie Mwea
(ancient keyboard music of West Africa with Bernard Woma and Barry Olsen), Orenda
(featuring traditional Native American songs and instruments) and Music for Gyil, Kuar, Voices
and Dancing.
The GYIL (pronounced JEEL or JEE lee), is the national instrument of the Dagara and Lobi nations
of West Africa. It is one of the grandmothers of the mallet keyboard family and is made from
fourteen wooden slats that are suspended on a frame, over calabash gourds. Nearly every man
in the community can play at least a tune or two, yet the gyil master (an instrument maker
as well as player) studies the instrument for much of his life before he is considered
worthy to represent the community at sacred events.
Gyil masters hold a position of great respect in their rural villages. Their extraordinary
abilities take many years to attain, and that their role as both the gate to the spirit
world in the sacred ceremony, and the world of joy and laughter in a simple moonlight
dance is important in maintaining the health of each individual and in the
bonding of the community.
Juan Namuncurá mixes trompe and kultrum with synthesizers, samplers and computers.
This mixture starts in his blood, with a Bolivian Aymara father and Argentinean Mapuche mother.
Juan was born in Cochabamba (Bolivia), but grew up in the indigenous community of Villa
Regina south of Río Negro in Argentina. It was here that he began his musical studies first
with the Argentinean maestro Antonio Toninni and later with Nicholas Alessio and Oscar Bazán.
Juan is a writer, poet and composer. He has won several awards both for composition and as
instrumental soloist, including first prize at the Festival de Choele Choel, as instrumental
soloist and honorable mention for his composition Pre-Cosquin 93. Among his many projects
were soundtracks for the film La Nave de los Locos of Ricardo Wullicher, the plays Tupac
Amaru and Hermano del Alma, creation of music and poetry with the actor Miguel Angel Sol´
for the piece Piedra Azul, a Mapuche ballet Meli and composing and directing the opening
ceremonies at the 1996 Atlanta pre-olympic games.
As his Mapuche name of Werkén (messenger, ambassador) reveals, Juan has been documenting
and sharing Mapuche culture with the world for many years. In 1993, he created a
multi-media Mapuche-Spanish dictionary. In 1998 he founded the first record company
in Argentina for indigenous music, Piedra Azul - releasing its first disc Tejido
de Piedra, compilation of music, composed, produced and recorded by indigenous
peoples. He collaborated with Susana Frank to present the first exhibition of
contemporary indigenous art at the Centro Cultural Recoleta in 1999 and again
in 2001, to present a workshop on Mapuche silver. As director of the Instituto
de Cultura Indígena Argentina, he has a forum to continue his work.
|
|
|
|
|