NIGHTDANCERS: Montana Crossings

NightDancers

Montana Crossings

© 2007 Gera Clark/John Sarantos (837101342872)

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"Taking contemporary Native American flute music to a new high."

notes

!!!!! NIGHTDANCERS GARNERS NOMINATION !!!!!

2008 INDIAN SUMMER MUSIC AWARDS
Category: Native Spirit
Montana Crossings by NightDancers

INDIAN SUMMER FESTIVAL
September 5 – 7, Milwaukee’s Lakefront

From fist-pumping modern rock anthems to spiritual hymns played on traditional instruments, Indian Summer Music Awards (ISMA) recognizes and promotes the very best in commercially released Native American music created by both established and emerging artists. The ISMA Awards are presented live during the Indian Summer Festival held September 5-7 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with the awards ceremony on Saturday, September 6, 2008. Entries are judged by a panel of respected professionals from across the music and entertainment industries. Winners are selected from 13 categories including Folk, Alternative Rock, Classic Rock, Hip Hop, Spiritual, Traditional Drum, Native Heart and more! Indian Summer Festival, North America’s largest American Indian cultural festival celebrating its 22nd anniversary, is dedicated to strengthening the American Indian community and educating the general public on the history and the unique and diverse cultures of the American Indian by providing a forum to celebrate and showcase American Indian traditions.

NightDancers enjoy sharing instrumental flute music with their unique style of taking listeners on a musical journey by painting sound pictures with their original contemporary Native American flute songs. This debut recording, Montana Crossings, features twenty-five flutes representing eleven flute makers from coast-to-coast. No overdubbing or sound samplers were used on this recording. 10% of the sales of the physical cd will be used to buy flutes for Butch Hall Flutes for Cancer Patients. Total running time 62:06.

NightDancers are Gera Clark and John Sarantos.


About Gera Clark:

I grew up in a house full of music with my mother Muriel playing beautiful music on the piano and me trying to do the same. During this time my Aunt Ursula had tales of adventures and pictures of places out West from her trips. When I hit the age of travel, I exchanged my playing piano for a more portable instrument, a nickel silver-plated flute.
After many adventures and misadventures, I one day found myself about a hundred miles west of New York, standing outside a Tibetan Buddhist Temple, when suddenly I heard the most beautiful sound. Following the powerful, yet haunting sound, I found it emanating from a Native American flute, played by Ed Callshim (Ponca Sioux). After this experience, I finally found a flute of my own at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York.
Later, when traveling to Niagara Falls with my teacher Amy Lee (Iroquois), a deep desire to connect with my earlier travels in the Southwest was awakened. On one particular journey, I found myself retracing my steps of meeting a koshari many years ago and spending time exploring the canyons along the Rio Grande. Eventually I was led to the mountains and the Taos Pueblo, where I heard that haunting sound drifting through the air, and followed it to its source, a little adobe. Looking inside, I met a kind and talented gentleman, who encouraged me to play the native flute. That gentleman, unbeknownst to me at the time, is one of the finest Native American flute players, John Rainer Jr. (Taos/Creek). Leaving New Mexico with renewed faith, I was led, via The American Indian Community House in New York, to Franc Menusan (Muskogee Creek), who became my extremely patient mentor for several years.
On my birthday, I flew out to an R. Carlos Nakai (Navajo/Ute) concert with the San Francisco Symphony, where I learned about the Renaissance of the Native American Flute (RNAF) workshop in Montana. I came back to New York and booked myself a flight to Montana,
which was where I met John Sarantos, and our musical partnership was born.

About John Sarantos:

All my life I wanted to be a musician. Even after my junior high drum instructor told me I had no rhythm and quit teaching me. Even after being inspired by a Jethro Tull concert only to be dropped by my silver flute instructor on the grounds of being tone deaf - a verdict reinforced by several singing instructors. I still did not give up my dream. I just gave up dreaming for a while.
When I was 45, my mother Demetra introduced me to Native American flute music. The next day, synchronicity struck when my friend Nick Stamas introduced me to the flute music of Coyote Oldman.
Synchronicity struck again in 1996 when I heard Peter Kater and R. Carlos Nakai in concert in Chicago where I learned about Renaissance of the Native American Flute (RNAF) in Montana. After gaining more information on the upcoming workshop by spending an hour on the phone with Penny Light, I turned down a free two week tour to Japan and found myself inside a tipi at RNAF. I have been attending RNAF for over ten years, first as a participant, then as a facilitator. It was there that I met my first two flute teachers, Ken Light and R. Carlos Nakai. My dreams were re-awakened.
Next, my flute journey led me to Eugene, Oregon where I met my flute mentor Charles Littleleaf (Warm Springs), who has shared many sacred places, wisdom, stories, laughter, and friendship with me.
I have been fortunate in my life to have shared my knowledge of the flute with over 1,000 people from coast-to-coast, in a variety of workshops, thanks to the encouragement and support of folks like Bill Tucker, Bob and June Picard, Susanne (Suz) Tarhay, Peg and David Hernandey, and Wayne McClesky.
At RNAF in 2005, I was fortunate to meet and play flutes with Gera Clark. Through the encouragement of Gera’s friend, Bob Hegler, we continued jamming together, often via speakerphones 1,000 miles apart. A year later we formed NightDancers.

reviews

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  • Reviewer
    author: John Tenting

    With the use of original contemporary Native American flute songs, NIGHTDANCERS have put together an unusual collection of music that is rarely heard. History proves that the Native American culture used music as a way to produce healing qualities. With the debut release of, "Montana Crossings" Gera Clark and John Sarantos have recaptured that soothing and mystical art and preserved it for eternity. Using a collection of twenty-five flutes creates a combination of sounds that would otherwise be stale in comparison. On a special note, 10% of the physical sales of this cd will be donated to buy flutes for Butch Hall Flutes for Cancer Patients. This pair uses the tonal quality of each flute to harmonize with the other. The clarity and sound of the wood is amazing. This is a mood inducing, thought provoking collection of instrumental arrangements that create a relaxing sound to the ears. These songs were recorded impeccably at Avatar Studios in New York by Jim Anderson and mastered with that same attention to detail by, Fred Kervorkian. My words can not do justice to the feeling these recordings produce. Being part Native American myself, I felt connected to these songs and sounds. From the inventive, playful interaction of the instruments on "Turtle and Bird" to the solo flute sounds on the beginning of, "Windhorse". Reprinted from Sonicbids Review Series #24 NightDancers - World Voice News December 4,2007

  • An evocative, healing and transporting experience!
    author: Jesse Ramos

    Listening to NightDancers Gera Clark and John Sarantos play their flute duets is an evocative, healing and transporting experience. The titles of their selections along with their flute music bring the listener to Rocky Mountain Big Horn, where you soon are gazing at Bitterroot Sunrise mountain range, and then witnessing a Butterfly Dance. You are taken Into the Night by Spirit Winds where you fall into a Forest Dream. The titles are as evocative as the music they name. This CD is an extraordinary collection of smooth and beautiful melodies. Two flutes playing duets that soar, glide, dance and mystify. There have been scientific studies on how music can be healing, soothing and comforting to the soul. Montana Crossings posses all these properties and I predict word of mouth will make this CD one of the best selling flute compilations. Whether you play this beautiful contemporary Native American flute music in the morning, mid day or evening you are magically transported to another time and space. I first played Montana Crossings early one morning and I was compelled to stop my morning musings and listen closely to the haunting melodies and I erroneously thought this is a great morning CD. A few days later I played it one evening and I thought these exquisite flute sounds are the perfect accompaniment to a day’s end, they usher in dusk and is the quintessential background music for a sun setting peacefully. Then one hot August afternoon I played it and I was an eagle, soaring through Montana’s skies with wings brushing mountains majesty. As you listen to this album you will grow to appreciate the different flute sounds, the subtleties, richness of soft notes, tender melodies, haunting whispers and sounds that skip through the air like tossed pebbles in a lake rippling into a hundred circles of flute sounds. Take the journey with this astonishing music. Reprinted with permission from Voice of the Wind, the official publicaton of the International Native American Flute Association, Voiume 3, 2007.

  • Expertly played!
    author: Gelong Thupten Phuntsok

    Montana Crossings is very well put together. I was very happy with each composition. There was a distinctive narrative in each piece. I felt the need to listen and be taken to a beautiful journey that only the music could take me to. Sometimes, there were sights and colors. They were expertly played.

  • Outstanding!!!
    author: Veronica Piastuch

    Gera Clark and John Sarantos have achieved a flawless album that is born from their spirits. The entire cd takes the listener on a musical journey and creates a dialog between their flutes and Creator. It is a seamless circle of music that allows the listener to access their own spirit wind. Beautiful, just beautiful. As an artist, I am always looking for music so I can work with my own spirit while painting. This is it! It helps me achieve the trance I need to work. Thank you Gera and John for creating music of extraordinary beauty so that I may walk in beauty.

  • A true musical journey!
    author: David Martinka-Recording Artist

    The flute songs on this CD Montana Crossings from NightDancers are a true musical journey. Gera Clark and John Sarantos interweave their two styles of playing into one. Songs like Windhorse, Spirit Winds, and Elk Medicine are some of my favorites. My first time listening to Montana Crossings gave me the feeling of peace and harmony. Only later when I read the liner notes did see there was no overdubbing. Gera and John have a real connection with these songs. Montana Crossings is a CD that you can listen to over and over.

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