Raymond Carlos Nakai (born April 16, 1946) is an American flutist. Nakai played brass instruments in high school and college, and auditioned for the Armed Forces School of Music after a two-year period in the United States Navy. He began playing a traditional Native American cedar flute after an accident left him unable to play the trumpet. Largely self-taught, he released his first album Changes in 1983, and afterward signed a contract with Canyon Records, which produced more than 30 of his albums in subsequent years. His music features original compositions for the flute inspired by traditional Native American melodies. Nakai has collaborated with musicians William Eaton, Peter Kater, Philip Glass, Nawang Khechog, Paul Horn, and Keola Beamer. He has received 11 Grammy Award nominations for his albums.

Biography

Early life and education

Raymond Carlos Nakai was born in Flagstaff, Arizona, on April 16, 1946, to a family of Navajo and Ute descent. His father Raymond Nakai served as the Chairman of the Navajo Nation from 1963 to 1970. As a child he would audition tapes for a Navajo language radio show hosted by his parents; in doing so, he heard a recording of William Horn Cloud, a Lakota musician from the Pine Ridge Reservation, playing the flute. When he enrolled in a high school on the Colorado River Indian Reservation in Arizona, he sought to play the flute in the school band, but was assigned the cornet instead, which, he later said, he was less interested in.

He began studying at Northern Arizona University in 1966, where he played brass instruments in the marching band. As a second-year student, he was drafted into the United States Navy, and spent two years studying communications and electronics in Hawai'i and the south Pacific. He auditioned for the Royal Hawaiian Band, but was turned down as he was not Hawaiian himself. Jones would continue to supply Nakai with flutes for several years. He taught graphic art at a high school until 1983; his wife also worked as a teacher at the time. By 2016, Nakai had recorded more than 30 commercial albums with Canyon records and several more with other producers, and had sold more than 3.5 million records. Nakai states: "I build upon the tribal context, while still retaining its essence. Much of what I do builds upon and expresses the environment and experience that I'm having at the moment." Music review website AllMusic called Canyon Trilogy in its simplicity", and referred to Earth Spirit as "an outstanding CD from a soulful man."

Nakai's 1995 collaboration with William Eaton, Feather, Stone, and Light, topped the New Age music album charts for 13 weeks, and was listed as a Billboard Critic's choice. He has been described as one of the "most prolific and innovative artists" within his genre.

Nakai was featured on the 1999 film Songkeepers, which depicted five Native American flute players—Nakai, Tom Mauchahty-Ware, Sonny Nevaquaya, Hawk Littlejohn, Kevin Locke—talking about their instruments and songs, and the role of the flute and its music in their tribes. Nakai's 1985 composition Cycles was used by the Martha Graham Dance Company in 1988 as the music for its ballet Nightchant. Nakai was awarded the Arizona Governor's Arts Award in 1992. He received an honorary doctorate from Northern Arizona University in 1994, The Library of Congress has more than 30 of his recordings preserved in the American Folklife Center.

Discography

Nakai's first album was released in 1983 by Canyon Records. He has since released 40 other albums on Canyon and appeared as a guest on other labels.

Publications

References

  • R. Carlos Nakai
  • R. Carlos Nakai interviews from the Echoes public radio show
  • World Music Central biography