Desert Dance

R. Carlos Nakai | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 23, 1992)
• Original Release Date: 1990
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Celestial Harmonies
• ASIN: B0000007WM
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,792 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #58 in Music > World Music > North America > Native American

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

R. Carlos Nakai has artfully merged traditional Native American performance practices with new perspectives on his musical lineage. An accomplished vocalist and master of the wooden flute, he has studied and lived with many tribes, incorporating their instruments and insights into a highly personal expression. Based in Tucson, Arizona, Nakai has performed at festivals, schools, museums, galleries and concert halls throughout the United States and in Europe. In addition, he has composed soundtracks for public television specials on Native American arts. A visual artist and teacher, as well as a musician (trained in both classical trumpet and indigenous flutes), Nakai has worked with the Arizona Commission on the Arts.

Product Description

Desert Dance is R. Carlos Nakai's musical interpretation of his experiences in the sacred place of his ancestors, Colorado's San Luis Valley. Like his critically acclaimed 1988 release, Sundance Season, the Navajo-Ute musician's latest album was recorded in the Lindisfarne chapel, a uniquely resonant structure situated within this dramatic expanse of holy ground. Many tribes, from the early pueblo dwellers to the Kiowa, Arapaho, and Comanche, have inhabited this alpine valley over time. Near Alamosa, Colorado, where the Great Sand Dunes lie, is the site of the Navajo's eastern sacred mountain, Blanca Peak, and the center of the Ute world. Nakai weaves his improvisations on the native American wooden flute, nose flute, drums, rattle, and voice into poetic meditations on the land and its history. During Ancient Voices, he delicately plays a Southern Plains war dance drum with finger taps and brushes to reveal a hidden palette of sound, much like the whisper of spirits within the valley. The joyful spectacle of desert birds frolicking upon waves of transparent air currents is depicted on Turquoise Swallows Dance, while the wind's daily moods are choreographed in temperate summer breezes, dust devils, and cloud formations on Wind Dance. Other selections deftly combine the plaintive, yet, potent sounds of Nakai's heritage to explore the mystery and unique beauty of this sacred territory.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!, February 17, 2008

By 

Neev (Woodinville, Washington) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Desert Dance (Audio CD)

I own several CDs of Nakai's work and they are all wonderful, but this one is simply magic. It is a wordless poem to the beauty of the Southwest.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacred Valley, January 20, 2006

By 

Joseph Sheader (Colorado Plateau) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Desert Dance (Audio CD)

Anyone who has lived within the sacred San Luis Valley of Coloraodo/New Mexico and treked thru the desert - alpine lands there, particularly around the Sacred Peak of Blanca and the Sangre's will hear the resonance of the land within the soul-full sound of Nakai's flute and chants.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enter the Sacred, April 26, 2001

By 

AmethystRosee "amethystrosee" (chicago, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desert Dance (Audio CD)

In listening to this CD, I feel in a New Mexico canyon and hear the whispers of the ancestors beckoning. I love the mystical quality of this CD. The sacred chants and flute have a peaceful quality that transforms us to the dimension of the sacred. Good meditation/contemplation music. I have never heard less than excellent from Carlos Naki.