Seven Horses, Shiprock & Canyon de Chelly Concert

In October of 2003, I gave two performances at Canyon De Chelly, Arizona. One on a Friday and another on a Sunday. Between them I spent some time exploring the area with my good friends Marvin and Jonette Yazzie, of Yazzie flutes, their grandson Tristan and their friend Jacque. Late on Saturday afternoon while Jonette, Jacque and I were returning to Lukachukai from New Mexico, we decided to pull off the highway onto a dirt road that led toward the base of Shiprock, a huge rock formation that rises out of the earth hundreds of feet high. It is sacred to the Navajos.


After driving a few miles towards it, our path was blocked by huge pools of water from the thunderstorm the night before. The road was washed out and since the light was fading an we decided to stop and take some pictures. I took the opportunity to get out a few flutes to play while we were parked there, in what was becoming a beautiful sunset.


After about fifteen minutes Jacque spotted some wild horses high on a ridge that leads up to Shiprock. They seemed interested in the sound of the flutes and I decided to play a very simple tune to see if they would come closer. While I was playing every one stayed very quiet.

Slowly, very slowly the horses started to come down toward us. As they got closer we could see there were seven of them. Six adults and a colt. I kept playing and they came closer and closer, getting to within twenty feet of me. They stopped and listened for a while, their ears moving to catch the music, standing very still and quiet.


Then slowly, they started to walk around me, staying close to me as I continued to play, all the while watching me and listening to the sound of the flute.


They circled around to the pool that had flooded the road and began to drink. It would have been shorter for them to go straight to the pool but instead they circled around me, seeming entranced by the sound of the flute. It was incredibly beautiful and magical. Seven wild horses, the haunting sound of the flute and the sun setting behind Shiprock


while the moon rose on the other side of the sky.


A fragile moment, that was broken when the sound of a camera spooked them and they bolted away toward Shiprock.

By then darkness was all around us, and we headed home. The next evening, during my concert I played the piece I was playing to get the horse to come toward us. Appropriately I've named it SEVEN HORSES, and I’ve posted a sample of it. The entire piece is available as a mp3 free download to members of my E-mailing list. To learn more and sign up visit my E-mailing List Page.

PHOTOS FROM SHIPROCK .

PHOTOS FROM CANYON DE CHELLY .

Distant Thunder

Each summer, storm clouds drift up from the south, bringing
Distant Thunder to answer ancient prayers for precious rain.
This piece from Distant Spirits, features an F# Native American flute by Ken Light, as well as an African kalimba, electric guitar and lots of global percussion.

Echoes from the Road: Palatki Ruins, Sedona, AZ

Last week I was in Arizona doing some appearances in Tucson and Sedona. Taking a little time before I headed home, I visited the Sinagua ruins of Palatki and Honanki in the Verde Valley. These two ancient cliff dwellings lie to the west of Sedona and are part of the Coconino National Forest, Red Rock Area. The ruins were built by the Sinagua, a culture between the Anasazi to the north and the Hohokam to the south. The Sinagua are thought to have been in the Verde Valley since A.D. 600. The ruins of Palatki and Honanki, however, date to about A.D. 1125.

Palatki is tucked into the Red Rock cliffs outside Sedona.

One of the main ruins in the East Alcove. Note the "shield" designs on the cliff wall behind the ruins. These could be clan signs. Other theories are that shields are defensive signs, symbols of power and may have even had magical, protective associations.

More of the left part of the East Alcove ruin.

Another image of the East Alcove.

During my time in Sedona I met the flute maker J.P. Gomez. He had kindly gifted me some flutes and I took this wonderful Black Walnut flute in the key of E to play among the ruins. J.P. Gomez makes great flutes and we'll be looking and listening to some of his instruments in future postings.

Looking toward the West Alcove which is closed to the public.

The ruins of Palatki are next to a major rock art site. There are hundreds of petroglyphs and pictographs in four alcoves along a 0.2 mile long trail that date from approximately 12,000 years ago to the Anglo settlers of the early 20th Century.
As with many Rock Art sites, images of flute players abound. Know by the Hopi name Kokopelli, the hump-backed flute player is a fertility figure and is an important deity to the cultures of the historic and prehistoric Southwest. His image is found all over, and he is associated with impregnating women, carrying seeds or babies on his back from village to village, and is often associated with rain and waters symbols. He is also part of the reproduction of animals and his flute playing is said to chase away winter and bring in spring. Usually depicted with a large phallus Kokopelli is known for his womanizing and is part of the trickster iconography of native cultures.

This symbol is also thought to represent the sun but could also be another shield. This one was originally made by the prehistoric Sinagua but was later traced over by historic Yavapai or Apache. Perhaps to rejuvenate the power of the symbol.

During the early Sinagua occupation of the Verde Valley there was frequent contact with the Hohokam culture to the south. Casa Grande is the most famous Hohokam site and was profiled in an earlier posting: Casa Grande Ruins, Arizona.The dancers in this pictograph remind me of images of Hohokam "dancers" found in their art. Most commonly images from their Red-on-Buff pottery of the Sacaton period and images from the South Mountains.

An animal figure with a large, and odd shaped, head.

Two animal figures with large tails.

A star figure. Star figures from the Colorado plateau are sometimes associated with the Morning Star, Venus, or the warrior deity Sotuqnangu, or Heart of the Sky. Sotuqnangu is a major Hopi deity with the face of a star. The Morning Star and Venus are also know to be important warrior iconographic elements to the Meso American cultures of the Aztec and the Mayan. Did stars have the same meaning for the Sinagua?

References:
Friends of the Forest. 2004. Palatki Red Cliffs: Tour Guide

Rose Houk. 1992. The Sinagua. Western National Parks Association.

David Grant Noble, ed. 1991. The Hohokam: Ancient People of the Desert. School of American Research.

Polly Schaafsma. 2000. Warrior, Shield and Star, Imagery and Ideology of Pueblo Warfare. Western Edge Press.

Polly Schaafsma. 2001. Indian Rock Art of the Southwest. School of American Research.

To read more about other travels I’ve taken in the southwest visit the ECHOES FROM THE ROAD section of www.cedarmesa.com

For more information about Palatki visit the COCONINO NATIONAL FOREST - RED ROCK AREA web pages.

NAF Part 3: Cocobolo flute

The last flute posting was about a Mayan Moon Goddess flute, from Meso America. Let’s return again to North America for the flute design, but stay in Meso America for the wood. The flute above, made by Marvin and Jonette Yazzie of Yazzie flutes, is a plains style Native American flute (NAF). The wood it is made of, however, is called Cocobolo and is native to Central America and Mexico: Meso America.


Cocobolo is a very hard wood and is a member of the Rosewood family. It is used in the construction of other musical instruments like Clarinets and Marimbas as well as Native American flutes. It is also used as a decorative wood for items such as knife handles. Marvin has told me that he’s seen furniture made out of it too. The color is very striking, a deep orange-red with yellow streaks. When the streaks are big, the effect is quite impressive. The flute is very heavy due to the hardness of the wood. Harder woods have a tighter grain and are more dense, making them heavier. Cocobolo trees are part of the genus Dahlbergia and are a member of the pea family, notably Dahlbergia retusa.

This flute is featured on the piece SEDONA SUNRISE, the only solo flute piece on my latest recording NEW FIRE

In the top photo you’ll notice that there is quite a lot of white Buck Skin wrapping the flute. This is not for decoration, but is helping hold the top and bottom of the flute together. Cocobolo wood has a lot of resin and even after allowing the wood to dry for a longer period of time than needed for most other woods, this resin prevents the glue that holds the flute together from bonding. This flute was only the second one that the Yazzies had made from Cocobolo wood and they were still trying to figure out how to deal the extra resin. Since then they have overcome this problem. I’ve talked with other flute makers and master Renaissance and Baroque Recorder maker Jeff Holt, and it would seem the most common way to deal with Cocobolo resin is to wipe some acetate on the area to be glued just before applying the glue. The acetate “dries” the wood long enough for the glue to bond.

To find out more information about Yazzies flutes, and other flute makers check out the FLUTE MAKERS page on my web site.

For more information about the Native American flute visit my NATIVE AMERICAN FLUTE HISTORY page.

Be sure to check out the photos of my FLUTE COLLECTION to see more instruments.

If you have any questions, send it to me using the comment link below.

Road Trip: Casa Grande Ruins, Ariziona

Part of being a musician means life on the road. Playing the Native American flute, I tend to traveled through the Southwest a lot. Yesterday I did an appearance at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument and between sets got to take a tour of the largest ruin on the site, or “Big House”, for which the monument is named.


This very large structure is from the Hohokam culture which was once the largest prehistoric culture in what is now southern Arizona, around modern day Phoenix and Tucson. Built during the Civano phase circa AD 1300 - 1350 Casa Grande lies about halfway between these two modern cities. The Big House is the only remaining structure of it’s kind and was thought to be used by an elite class or perhaps for religious purposes by priests. It is made up of several rooms that surround an inner room. During it's height of use by the Hohokam it was four stories high. In addition to it’s size the building was also aligned to movements of the sun and moon.


In the inner most room of the Big House, holes in the wall are aligned with the equinoxes of the rising sun. In the photo above, the hole on the left is where the rising sun shines into Casa Grande during the equinox and casts it’s image on the opposite wall. As the sun moves higher in the sky, it’s the spot it projects on the opposite wall moves down the wall and lines up inside a hole in that wall. There are also alignments to the Major and Minor standstills of the moon.


Surrounding the Big House are adobe, or caliche, room blocks like modern apartment structures. These made up a larger compound that may have once been walled in like a small ancient medieval city. Casa Grande Runs National Monument consists of at least four of these compounds. Many of the compounds have platform mounds that where used for ceremonies, dances and other public events. Much like plazas are used by modern Pueblo cultures. There is also a ball court where an ancient game was played with a rubber ball. Ball courts are common in Meso America and their presence in North America is thought to be a cultural influence from there. Records of the Meso American version of the game indicate that the players could not use their hands while playing the game. In some cultures the losing team lost more than the game, they were sacrificed upon losing. To read more about other travels I’ve taken in the southwest visit the ECHOES FROM THE ROAD section of www.cedarmesa.com

As an aside, the desert, after the huge amounts of rain that have fallen this winter, is in full bloom now. Wildflowers are everywhere and everything is a wonderful green.