Carlod Nakai

Pianist/composer Peter Kater is known for his scores for television, film, and theater, as well as for his own recordings of light jazz and new age music. Born in Germany, Kater moved from Munich to New Jersey when he was four. He began piano lessons three years later and studied classical music until taking up rock & roll in his early teens. At the age of 18, Kater moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he played improvised music and lived for over a decade before moving to rural Virginia, where he built Earth Sea Studios.

The Concerto Project Vol. II is the second release in Orange Mountain Music’s Concerto Project series and features two world premiere recordings of works by composer Philip Glass. Pianist Paul Barnes performs Piano Concerto No. 2 “After Lewis and Clark” with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ralph Gothóni. The concerto was commissioned in part by the Nebraska Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Commission in celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the explorers’ journey across the American continent. The three movements are titled “The Vision”, “Sacagawea” and “The Land.” The first and third movements bookend an intimate middle movement that features a traditional Shoshone Indian theme performed on the Native American flute by R. Carlos Nakai. The dynamic flare of the first concerto is contrasted by the album’s second work, Philip Glass’s beautiful Concerto for Harpsichord and Orchestra. The three movement concerto is performed by harpsichordist Jillon Stoppels Dupree and the Northwest Chamber Orchestra conducted by Ralph Gothóni.

Pianist/composer Peter Kater is known for his scores for television, film, and theater, as well as for his own recordings of light jazz and new age music. Born in Germany, Kater moved from Munich to New Jersey when he was four. He began piano lessons three years later and studied classical music until taking up rock & roll in his early teens. At the age of 18, Kater moved to Boulder, Colorado, where he played improvised music and lived for over a decade before moving to rural Virginia, where he built Earth Sea Studios. Until the opening of Earth Sea in early 1997, Kater had recorded exclusively for the Silver Wave label, starting with his debut release, Spirit, in 1983.

Yojiro Takita's epic film set at the end of the Edo period in Kyoto tells the story of Kanichiro Yoshimura, a lone Samurai whose sole purpose in life was to make enough money to support his family. His fellow warriors initially view him as dishonorable for this mercenary approach, especially Saito, another member of the Shinsengumi, guardians of the Imperial capital. It is here that Kanichiro proves himself time and time again as a master swordsman, eventually earning the respect of Saito and the other samurai.

Songs are a heritage in Native American cultures, used for medicine of all kinds and for links to animal life, to the spirit world, to the heart, to the mind. In the past few decades, Native American music has resurfaced in full force, developing in ways that enhance and build upon past forms and methods through the use of technologies and musical ideas undreamed of in the past. This wonderful collection takes stock of both traditional and modern forms, ranging from R. Carlos Nakai, Cornel Pewewardy, and Douglas Spotted Eagle providing the expected flute performances; to Bill Miller mixing Native American approaches into folk and country ballads; to the free-floating jazz of Charles Jefferson, whose trumpet-led "500 Drums" is one of many highlights of the album (the album itself is a highlight, in fact, no doubt of that). Between Father Sky and Mother Earth is by no means an ultimate collection of Native American music (a single disc isn't room enough by far), but it is one that can be considered both an essential starting point and an excellent way station.

Songs are a heritage in Native American cultures, used for medicine of all kinds and for links to animal life, to the spirit world, to the heart, to the mind. In the past few decades, Native American music has resurfaced in full force, developing in ways that enhance and build upon past forms and methods through the use of technologies and musical ideas undreamed of in the past. This wonderful collection takes stock of both traditional and modern forms, ranging from R. Carlos Nakai, Cornel Pewewardy, and Douglas Spotted Eagle providing the expected flute performances; to Bill Miller mixing Native American approaches into folk and country ballads; to the free-floating jazz of Charles Jefferson, whose trumpet-led "500 Drums" is one of many highlights of the album (the album itself is a highlight, in fact, no doubt of that). Between Father Sky and Mother Earth is by no means an ultimate collection of Native American music (a single disc isn't room enough by far), but it is one that can be considered both an essential starting point and an excellent way station.

Native American music is remarkably disparate and varied with tribal backgrounds and regional and climatic distinctions augmenting the differences brought about in all of us by personal experience, taste and character. In this collision of sounds and styles however, a new impetus is emerging. Native Americans are reaffirming the music they have inherited. Native American creativity not only perseveres but thrives.