Neuse River Flute Circle

Here’s some information that some of you may not have gotten. There is a very interesting exhibition at the NC Museum in downtown Raleigh that will run through Jan. 13. Once in a generation the British Museum brings out all of John White’s original watercolor paintings done in 1585 of North Carolina Indians — the Coastal Algonquian peoples of Secotan and Pomeiooc. We have all seen these images reproduced in museums and books. These images are amazing snapshops of Indian life before European contact changed traditional lifeways forever. See:   http://www.ncmuseumofhistory.org/lostcolony/site/about.html

As you wander through the exhibition you will begin hearing some rivercane flute music in the ambient sound audiotrack that is playing in the space. NRFC member John Kincheloe contributed that music — done on three different rivercane flutes — as a way to remind museum visitors that when the first Europeans came to North America, they were greeted by people who came to the shores playing flutes. We NA Flute players today are exploring a very ancient musical tradition. We are really playing the oldies!

Get your tickets now for the Tribal Voices concert featuring R. Carlos Nakai and Keola Beamer: November 30, at the Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh.

From the Pinecone website: 

“Native Voices brings together two legendary musicians from America’s indigenous peoples-Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai and Hawaiian slack key guitar virtuoso Keola Beamer -touring together for the first time to promote their collaborative CD, Our Beloved Land, on Canyon Records. R. Carlos Nakai, the world’s premier performer of the traditional cedarwood flute, journeyed to Hawai’i where he spent time fitting the haunting melodies of his flute into the soulful songs and brilliant arrangements of Keola Beamer, the world’s most revered living slack key guitarist. The result is a dramatic new music that seamlessly blends traditional elements of both American Indian and Polynesian Island styles: original songs, traditional Navajo-Ute and Hawaiian chanting, and music played on slack key guitar, Native American cedarwood flute, and the Hawaiian nose flute. Supporting the duo will be John Kolivas on bass and Moanalani Beamer (Keola’s wife) on whistle and several ancient Hawaiian percussive instruments. Moanalani, a master dancer, will also perform hula and other traditional Polynesian dances to the musical arrangements.”