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R Carlos Nakai.
 R
Carlos Nakai, better known to his friends (and casual acquaintances)
as 'RC' is a softly spoken and thoughful man, a real gentleman.
"This is sort of an experimental thing right now, to see if
there's interest," he opines from somewhere on the Gold Coast,
preparing for the drive up to Brisbane where he begins his first
Australian tour.
"I'm getting much better acclimatised to this country, so we're ready to start this evening in Brisbane," he acknowledges my question about his general welfare.
Performing as a solo artist, or commonly enough in a trio or with a world music quartet, RC Nakai spends a good portion of every year performing and giving workshops on his chosen instrument, the Native American flute.
Since he's not performed in this country before, it stands to reason that he's not well known, I suggest.
"Yes, it's surprising," he says, sounding anything but surprised. Partly, I suppose, it's something to do with the distances involved, and the fact that his many recordings are not commonly available in Australia.
Graciously, he concedes his reputation could be enhanced in some circles, even though he's been nominated for multiple Grammy Awards for his work on music soundtracks.
"Well, not too large..." he says of his reputation, "though there are 30 recordings I produced for Canyon Records of Arizona." I mention perhaps he'd be better known and more satisfied if he'd actually won a Grammy...
"Oh I don't know," he swats the implication away with no sign of rancour. "I think I'm more satisfied there are people from all walks of lifes of life listening to my music."
RC joined the music industry full time mid-way through the 1980s almost by chance, after there was a push in US educational circles for a new movement towards what is termed 'behaviour modification'... "a lot of the teachers I was associated with lost their jobs... and I wondered whether it was all worth it at around about that point. I had experience and training in graphic production, television and printing, so I came to it [music] from that.
"It was a stroke of luck for me," he continues. "My first two recordings I produced myself, doing the liner notes and cover design and everything." Ah, that was back in the days of vinyl LPs, when you could design good artwork and get more information in the space provided.
RC's backup plan, if you want to call it that, was that as a Navajo/Ute Indian (now usually referred to as Native Americans, but I get the feeling RC doesn't obssess on labels) he was also a wonderful flautist and composer, proficient on the cedar wood instrument.
"When I started out there were four older men who were the sum total of flute players in the world," he almost snorts at the recollection. Admittedly, then, it wasn't a hard field to break into, but the sense of helping to save a culture must be inestimable.
"There are original melodies that reflect upon the traditions of the plains people," he admits, and points out through the course of those thirty something albums he's explored a whole lot of other avenues, collaborated with scores of other musicians and advanced his own knowledge and musical abilities in areas he'd never previously imagined.
Along the way, he's also had to give away making his own instruments. He used to make his own, using any suitable wood he could find, but as he got busier and busier travelling around he ran into difficulties, as he drily notes. "It got difficult to carve them in airports, making a mess while I was waiting... people asking me about the knives...". These days RC has his instruments made by a Montana man and a guy in Texas, both of whom he met some years ago.
When I ask him about the plight of Native Americans these days, and mention the fact that the last real radical outbursts we heard were nearly 20 years ago now, he seems quick to agree.
"On the reservations and homelands, the problem is there has to be education, internally," he posits. "There's this great fear where the people are afraid of change, and mistrustful. My perspective as a cultural scientist is that a lot of the responsibility for identity has been forsaken by many of the tribes," he says, and it sounds as though he's deploring the welfare and tax system and tribal dependency upon it.
Alex Wheaton
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R Carlos Nakai features at WOMADelaide.
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