303: Navajo Songs from Canyon de Chelly, by Sam Yazzie Sr. and group

Sam Yazzie Sr. and group (USA)
Navajo Songs from Canyon de Chelly (1990)
13 tracks, 48 minutes
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We listen to so much music from the USA. The country has been the coalescing place for so many of the most popular and enduring musical styles that have impacted the culture in almost every corner of the world. But this American culture only dates back about 500 years at the very earliest and springs from peoples who have either taken the land for themselves or who were forcibly relocated from their homes an ocean away against their will. Very little do we hear the sounds of the original custodians of the land.

Perhaps you’re like me: when I considered Native American music, it was always in the frame of New Age music. You know the sort, echo-y chants, pounding drums, wooden flutes and panpipes of origins from anywhere across the American continents, backed by layered synthesised drones and variously accompanied by cheesy saxophones, wolf howls and gongs of indeterminate Asian origin. But as ever, that association of Native American music with New Age pap is just one curated by white people dumbing down, making bland and generally ruining anything that the Native Americans touched, as has happened for centuries, for shame.

We can counter these narratives – and our own involuntary associations within ourselves – by listening to Native American music as it is performed traditionally. For me, this journey began with this album – recorded in 1975 – of music of the Navajo people, whose nation spans Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The music presented on this album is of many different functions. Many of the songs are important in the Ndaa’ or Anaa’ji’ music and dance ceremonies, which are held to purify Navajos after battle. As such, they hold a lot of sacred meaning. But although Native Americans are often regarded as incredibly solemn and spiritual people, the music here isn’t always so serious. Other songs included are work shanties, songs to accompany games and sports and songs whose sole purpose is as entertainment.

For those not accustomed to this sort of music, it can be quite difficult to listen to. The preferred vocal style is not what we’re used to, with very heavy vibrato and often quite a guttural tone, and the melodies are sometimes limited in their range to just two or three notes. There is however a hypnotic quality to a lot of it, the insistent rhythms, repetitive lines and recurring song structures. This music rewards close listening, although it may take some getting used to.

Of course, Navajo traditional music is only a small drop in a massive ocean of Native American music that stretches across a whole continent, and there are many more cool and fascinating styles out there – another recommendation is to listen to the intense and exciting pow wow music of the Hopi people. My own knowledge of these cultures is still scant and I’m looking forward to improving it. Listening to the music of indigenous and oppressed peoples is a powerful way of recentring and recalibrating cultural assumptions that may have been derived from inaccurate sources, and can also lead to further knowledge and understanding of these peoples’ wider cultures, beliefs and histories. The story of America is many millennia older than the USA, and its musical heritage deserves proper recognition too.