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Some years ago I joined an old friend and her part-Cherokee husband to
a Native American powwow in Gilroy. I remember it as a long
afternoon: hot, dusty and filled with an endless and to my ears
monotonous chanting and drumming. Not one of my more interesting
memories.
Which is why I was surprised when I started listening to
Intonation. Because although the tracks are unmistakably
Native American and consist of a duet of unadorned vocals, those
vocals are a wonder to behold. That word Harmonized from the
album's subtitle tells part of the story: two voices join and
separate and soar and dive and mix in all sorts of interesting ways.
And there are lyrics to some of the songs, which as best I recall
wasn't part of that earlier experience. Some are in English, others
are in some Native American language. But my understanding what
they're singing about doesn't matter nearly as much as the fact that I
know they're singing about something.
I could try to make some clever remark about my growing interest in
foreign cultures, or about the fact that in this case, it's my culture
that's the foreign one. Heck, I just did. But Intonation is
interesting for itself. It's music like I've never heard before. And
want to hear again.
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