Indigenous land tour culminates with free concert at Centennial High
LAS CRUCES – A 30-day musical tour featuring five Indigenous land areas in the western U.S. is coming to an end this week with jazz band D’DAT visiting the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument and performing a concert at Centennial High School.
D’DAT is a jazz group — founded as a trio in 2013 by Delbert Anderson — and based out of Farmington. Members now include Anderson on trumpet, Nicholas Lucero on drums, James Patookas on vocals and Michael McCluhan on bass.
Anderson explained that they were all influenced by Gitche Manitou, a fellow musician, who suggested the fusion of traditional Native American sound with modern jazz funk and hip-hop music. Manitou would often travel from First Nations in Canada to Germany throughout the year, Anderson said.
“He would always go to this festival while he was in Germany and … literally paint a side of a mountain. He would rappel and do this big mural during this three-day festival that they had there,” Anderson said of the group's mentor. “He had a big vision all the time.”
D’DAT’s Painted Mountains Tour was inspired by Manitou and a way for the group to say goodbye and thank him for his support. The band hit the road this summer taking 30 days to visit Canyon of the Ancients National Monument in Colorado, Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, Mecca Flats in Oregon, King Range in California and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks in New Mexico.
Anderson said he had over 100 representatives of national monuments contact him about performing at their location, but they were only able to schedule five. At each location, the band spent time in the environment and meeting with Indigenous tribes. They also hosted workshops for the community to better encapsulate the culture and sounds of the area.
They composed two original pieces for each stop, inspired by the knowledge they picked up, and performed for the communities on their last day. The original tracks will be part of a 10-track album released next year celebrating Indigenous lands and people.
The album is also a way to help preserve the culture and customs of the tribes during times when older generations are passing away and traditions are being lost.
“The whole thing is literally about collaboration,” Anderson said. “It's about celebrating, again, public lands and celebrating the Indigenous voices and really getting in between two identities I think that there’s a lot of misunderstanding with.”
Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, which was established as a national monument in 2014 to protect mountain ranges and desert areas in southern New Mexico, will be the group’s final stop from July 7-9. Anderson said they will be meeting with people from the Mescalero Apache tribe.
On Friday, the band invited community members to join them at the national monument’s visitor center near the Dripping Springs Natural Area. Attendees of past workshops will bring their instruments to play with the band.
Two new compositions will be written based on the Las Cruces-area experience and a concert will be held at Centennial High School’s football field at 7 p.m. Saturday. It is a free concert and all are welcome.
Anderson said the band will record the new tracks in November and the album will likely be released about six months later. He said the goal is to tour with the album next year and visit more of the national monuments that originally showed interest. The Painted Mountains Tour may even become an annual trip.
Others are reading:
Organ Mountain student performs on Broadway, part of the 2022 Jimmy Awards
These three country stars will headline 2022 New Mexico State Fair
Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Farmington band ending Indigenous land tour at Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks
