barnesandnoble.com: How did you come to play this unusual instrument?

R. Carlos Nakai: I studied trumpet for almost 15 years and was performing with a professional concert marching band in parades and rodeos. I was headed back east to study music, and if I hadn't been intrigued with the Native American flute, I suppose I'd now be jockeying for first chair of the brass section of some orchestra, or perhaps I'd be teaching music in a school system.

I attended a lot of powwows over the years, and noticed some players of the Native American flute. In 1971, I decided to find out more about it, and found only three men who still played the instrument: Doc "Tate" Nevaquaya (a Comanche), Tom Ware (a Kiowa), and a visual artist named Woodrow Haney Sr. After talking to them, I was determined not to let the instrument become a relic.

bn: What is the Native American flute?

RCN: It's a wooden flute, usually of cedar. The instrument's range (typically about 13 notes) and its key or mode is distinct to each flute and to the skill of the player. My musical collaborators have to adjust their key and chord progression to accommodate the limitations of the instrument.

bn: What is the role of the flute in the indigenous cultures?

RCN: The flute is traditionally the property of the male side of matrilineal hunter-gatherer societies and was used as a means of communication and personal expression.

bn: Would one perform for the rest of the tribe?

RCN: Well, it may have been used for courting a woman, much as one might sing to her. It's an instrument of personal expression and is not used in the communal performances you'd hear at the powwows, nor is it used in sacred or healing ceremonies.

bn: So I shouldn't take it into the sweat lodge?

RCN: I neither condone nor encourage such things, but change happens. These days, women are picking up the flute as well. I've pushed my share of boundaries with the instrument. The three early flute players all encouraged me away from the traditional songs to take the flute to new and original areas.

bn: Didn't flutist Paul Horn help in that direction?

RCN: Besides being a superb improvisational musician, he's pioneered the recording of the flute in resonant spaces such as the Great Pyramid and the Taj Mahal. People expected to hear those pieces in performance, so he used a digital delay synthesizer to enhance or simulate the echoes. I saw him perform, and he encouraged me to use one also. "R. Carlos," he explained, "you can have all those canyon walls right in this sacred black box!" So I perform and record with one. However, Paul and I recently recorded two albums -- INSIDE CANYON DE CHELLY and INSIDE MONUMENT VALLEY -- on location using the natural echoes of the canyon walls. The fullness of the echo is hard to record, but we taped some great improvs from ravens!

bn: What do you see as the wide appeal of your music? CANYON TRILOGY has sold more than half a million copies. Some say your music is healing or blissful. Can you tell us why your music has this effect?

RCN: I really can't explain it, but just because people feel relaxed listening to my music does not mean that I am in that space when I perform. My method is called through-composition. I am very focused and directed, organizing and reorganizing my motifs that build upon the improvisation at the moment. In my mind are all my road maps of theory and practice, and I have no mind space to spare to space out.... Of course, not everyone likes what we do, because it is not purely traditional or it is not disciplined enough or because the notes are not written down. We catch flack from all sides.
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