{"id":41465,"date":"2022-03-29T01:47:19","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T07:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/summer-jazz-fusion-concerts-celebrate-indigenous-connection-to-public-lands\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:01:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:01:24","slug":"summer-jazz-fusion-concerts-celebrate-indigenous-connection-to-public-lands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/summer-jazz-fusion-concerts-celebrate-indigenous-connection-to-public-lands\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer jazz fusion concerts celebrate Indigenous connection to public lands"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jazz
Jazz fusion band D'DAT, of Farmington, will go on tour this summer at perform at National Monuments and National Conservation Areas. (Courtesy D'DAT)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Jazz and hip-hop songs with Native American influences will soon echo across the mesas and cultural sites of Western Indigenous lands, including at Bears Ears and Canyons of the Ancients national monuments.<\/p>\n

As part of a Bureau of Land Management artist-in-residence program, Navajo jazz trumpeter Delbert Anderson<\/a> and his band D\u2019DAT<\/a> will perform concerts and host music workshops at six national monuments and conservation areas this summer throughout the West.<\/p>\n

It is the first time BLM\u2019s artist-in-residence program will feature a band performing a cross-country tour on public lands.<\/p>\n

D\u2019DAT performs a combination of jazz, funk and hip hop that appeals to people of all backgrounds. Anderson grew up in Farmington and teaches jazz ensemble at San Juan College.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited, it is a way to honor Indigenous people and provide a space through music to acknowledge their cultures,\u201d Anderson said in an interview with The Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n

During the tour, Anderson and D\u2019DAT will spend time at each location with local tribes researching Indigenous land stories and music.<\/p>\n

The next day, a free public workshop will be held for residents to learn about music composition and help compose original pieces of music. The final day will feature a free outdoor concert on public land.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe share how we compose and arrange our songs, how to use your experiences and culture to be yourself and create music,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

\"Trumpeter
Trumpeter Delbert Anderson fuses his Navajo culture into jazz and hip hop music. (Journal file)<\/span>Courtesy photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The 12 songs inspired from visiting the six areas will be made into an album.<\/p>\n

\u201cSamples or a sneak peak of music inspired by workshops and meetings with local tribes could make it into the concert,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cWe will be in the studio in November putting it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Painted Mountains Tour features music workshops followed by an outdoor concert the next day. Times and locations are pending. The schedule:<\/p>\n

June 14-15: Canyons of the Ancients National Monument.<\/div>\n
June 17-18: Bears Ears National Monument.<\/div>\n
June 23-24: Morley Nelson Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in Idaho.<\/div>\n
June 27-28: Oregon\u2019s Lower Deschutes River.<\/div>\n
July 2, 4: California\u2019s King Range National Conservation Area.<\/div>\n
July 8-9: Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument in New Mexico.<\/div>\n

Anderson and D\u2019DAT fuse Navajo spinning songs into their modern jazz and hip hop compositions. A traditional Din\u00e9 spinning song uses a method to create a new song based on the present moment, and passes it on to the next generation.<\/p>\n

Anderson has been researching the tradition with elders since finding a tape of the songs from the 1920s.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had songs for everything \u2013 love, war, ceremonies and healing. The spinning songs I was influenced by were those with messages to our youth about minding manners,\u201d Anderson said.<\/p>\n

Elders compare the process to a tornado.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is spinning around, and what gets spit out is the new song,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There are parallels to D\u2019DAT as well. The cyclone of band member experiences have melded their music into a genre-bending new category.<\/p>\n

In the studio, Anderson starts off new songs with a melody from his Navajo traditions and uses improvisation to find new musical territory.<\/p>\n

Band members join in the collaborative process. Lyricist James Pakootas, a member of the Colville Confederate Tribes, often translates his poems from an earlier hard life into authentic rap phrasing. Bassist Mike McCluhan\u2019s background in jam bands fuels the exploratory groove, and drummer Nicholas Lucero\u2019s rhythm keeps it all rolling with his jazz-band backbone and Latin influences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope everyone comes out, the workshops and concerts are open to everyone and free,\u201d Anderson said. \u201cOur style is unique. One time at a show in New York, we asked people to write down one word to describe us, and it was all different.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019DAT\u2019s new album, \u201cBorn In An Odd Time,\u201d will be released in June. The band\u2019s first release was the self-titled album in 2016. A third album will be from songs in the Painted Mountains Tour.<\/p>\n

The Painted Mountain tour ask attendees to preregister for the workshop and obtain free concert tickets via Eventbrite<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The music tour project is a new approach for the BLM artist-in-residence program, and for the band.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an amazing opportunity. There are a lot of logistics, we will be roughing it, camping a lot. The result will be an album that amplifies the Indigenous voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Land Management artist-in-residence programs features Western tour and workshops from Farmington jazz ensemble D\u2019DAT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,559,29,195],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-41465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-music","tag-newsletter","tag-u-s-bureau-of-land-management"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84976,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41465\/revisions\/84976"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41465"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=41465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}