Greetings, One & All~
I trust this finds everyone in good health and spirits, and that April will be as awesome in your world as it will be here in Willyworld. . . and that’s no foolin’!
R&R
April 1-11 I’ll be on the Big Island of Hawai’i: swimming with honu, soaking up aloha, observing the rebirth of the living earth, and recharging my creative battery–but not the battery in my iPhone!
Live Performances
April 13 I’ll be back in the saddle, riding my pan-global percussion pony kit with the William Eaton Ensemble for our annual Spring Concert at Old Town Center for the Arts. Info and tickets at
http://www.oldtowncenter.org/event/5th-season/william-eaton-ensemble-4-13.html
April 20-24 I’ll be on tour in Florida and Texas with the Nakai, Eaton & Clipman Trio, including a concert and school outreach events in Jacksonville and a return engagement at the fabled One World Theatre in Austin. Info and tickets for OWT at
http://www.oneworldtheatre.org/ShowSummary.aspx?cbResetparam=1&Genre=&Venue=&Month=&Year=&m=&y=
Advance tickets will go on sale on April 2 at 10 AM for the R. Carlos Nakai & Will Clipman concert at the legendary Musical Instrument Museum Theatre on May 11. Tickets and info at
http://mimmusictheater.themim.org/carlos-nakai
photo © Robert Doyle Photography/Canyon Records
Press
Awakening the Fire made the cover of Music Design in Review (I’m pretty sure the headline refers to RC, not me!) and is featured in a full-page inside-cover ad from Canyon Records as well as in a review on page 17. It’s interesting that the reviewer hears synths in the background–must be ghosts in the machine, as every single sound on the record is made by an acoustic instrument or a human voice!
And be sure to read Patricia Herlevi’s insightful review of Awakening the Fire on her Whole Music Experience weblog at
http://wholemusicexp.blogspot.com/2013/03/in-review-sonoran-beats.html
On the Air
Awakening the Fire was featured on WAWL (“The Wall”) Radio out of Chattanooga TN on March 26 and will air again on Tuesday April 2 at 7 PM EDT and 9 PM EDT on the Light in the Night & Ancestral Voices show at
www.WAWL.org
Gabriel Ayala hosted yours truly on his internationally syndicated radio show Liner Notes (KPYT-FM “The Voice of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe”) on March 7, featuring a number of cuts from Awakening the Fire and astutely interviewing your humble narrator about the nature of the music and the making of the recording.
Awakening the Fire has been received by La Otra Orilla show on Ràdio Despí in Barcelona, Spain, and April airplay is eagerly anticipated at
http://www.radiodespi.com/
In addition to a healthy presence on the airwaves, it’s been a big Spring on the small screen. On March 21 I rode the pony cajon kit with the Amber Norgaard Trio on the Morning Blend show (KGUN-9/ABC) in a piece about Equine Voices horse rescue featuring Amber’s new tune Raise Me Up, commissioned by EV and performed live on the air:
http://www.tucsonmorningblend.com/videos/198234331.html
Also on March 21, KUAT-6/PBS aired an interview with myself and Solvei on the Arizona Spotlight show, followed by a live in-studio performance of Solvei’s song Te Recuerdo by Solvei & ZumaSOL:
https://originals.azpm.org/p/azill-featured/2013/3/22/23300-singer-blends-latin-world-traditions/
And on March 22 I was back on the cajon pony kit for another appearance on the Morning Blend show, this time with Solvei & ZumaSOL performing another smoldering rendition of Te Recuerdo:
http://www.tucsonmorningblend.com/videos/199582561.html
photo © Solvei McKenna/Royal Dancer Music(ASCAP)
Studio News
I just got my copy of Mike King’s long-awaited and much-anticipated CD Street Pajama Bottoms (Art Attack Records) a musical allusion to the iconic Tucson-based power-pop band Street Pajama, with whom I played drums back in the early ’80’s. On the new album, recorded at Tucson’s celebrated Cavern Studios by an all-star cast of SP alumni, I added a little of that ol’ udu voodoo that I do so well to the acid-funk track Jazz Heart/Purple Heart.
Music Marketplace
Courtesy of A Train Entertainment and Canyon Records, Awakening the Fire was featured on the New & Noteworthy iTunes World Music Page throughout the month of March, and is now available for downloading with a free bonus track from
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/awakening-fire-bonus-track/id596574904
The Wider World
We tend to think of deforestation as a tropical and temperate zone phenomenon, but as this video Last Yoik in the Saami Forests demonstrates, the forests of the Arctic Circle are also in peril. I invite you to watch and reflect:
*Yoik is the traditional Saami song-poem form, sung improvisationally for thousands of years by my ancestors, and still sung today by contemporary Saami musical artists as well as everyday people.
I do believe that’s all for now, with many thanks for your kind attention~be well, be in touch and above all be!
