Medicine Singers is a group of
Native American ritual performance artists who began performing at
pow wows
A powwow (also pow wow or pow-wow) is a gathering with dances held by many Native American and First Nations communities. Powwows today allow Indigenous people to socialize, dance, sing, and honor their cultures. Powwows may be private or pu ...
and in other contexts, singing in an
Eastern Algonquian
The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...
dialect under their original moniker, Eastern Medicine Singers. In 2017, they began collaborating with Israeli guitarist and producer
Yonatan Gat, formerly of
Monotonix
Monotonix were a garage rock band from Tel Aviv, Israel. The group—singer Ami Shalev, guitarist Yonatan Gat, and drummer Ran Shimoni (later replaced by Haggai Fershtman)—released their debut EP in 2008 and toured mostly in the United States ...
, after meeting him in
Austin, Texas at the annual
SXSW
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...
festival. After doing a number of one-off projects together, they teamed up to explore "a completely new realm of music" that they included on their self-titled debut album, released by
Joyful Noise Recordings in association with a new sub-label, called
Stone Tapes
Stone Tapes is an independent record label, music collective and imprint of Joyful Noise Recordings curated by Yonatan Gat. The label was founded in 2022, branching off of Joyful Noise's artist-in-residence program, and emerged from visions and ...
, in 2022.
History
Pre-2017: Eastern Algonquian revival
Before branching out as Medicine Singers, Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson, Ray Two Hawks, and other members of the original group had been providing traditional music at Indigenous pow wows, ceremonial gatherings, and in other contexts.
They sang mostly in
Eastern Algonquian
The Eastern Algonquian languages constitute a subgroup of the Algonquian languages. Prior to European contact, Eastern Algonquian consisted of at least 17 languages, whose speakers collectively occupied the Atlantic coast of North America and adj ...
, a surviving branch of one of the most widely distributed
mother tongues of Native American peoples on the continent. Jamieson—who has also served as clan chief of the
Pocasset Wampanoag—learned this language under the guidance of a now-deceased elder and chief, Clinton Wixon, one of the last fluent speakers of the Wampanoag dialect. Preserving, reviving, resurrecting, and celebrating endangered Native American languages and dialects as well as maintaining aspects of ceremonial tradition and communion within these groups has always been a part of the band's mission.
In a 2022 interview with ''
The Fader'', Jamieson stated, "
ur peopleare the people of the first light—we see the light first—we are the guardians of the first gates".
"It's a tradition for us to do these prayers in the morning to thank the Creator for life. It's a very important song, and I gave it to my tribe, the Pocasset Tribe of the Pokanoket Nation. It's important to keep these songs and pass them down to the generations—that's why we want to show the words, to help people know that this language is still out there and some people are still speaking it."
2017–2021: New directions
Yonatan Gat saw Eastern Medicine Singers during an outdoor performance in Austin, Texas in 2017 and was so moved, that he spontaneously asked for them to come in and join him onstage at the show he was about to play.
The group agreed. The response from the crowd that night was overwhelming, according to Gat, and this chance meeting took off from that point into an ongoing collaboration. The group recorded and did a video with Gat as a featured artist on his own solo project and as they began playing at festivals together, they decided to update their name to Medicine Singers and jointly record a full-length album.
2022: ''Medicine Singers''
Ryan Olson was recruited as a producer, and a variety of other artists—Ian Wapichana of
Wapishana, Joe Rainey Sr. of the
Chippewa,
Thor Harris
Thor Harris (born February 7, 1965) is an artist, sculptor, musician, painter, carpenter and handyman. He was the percussionist for Swans (2010–2016). He has performed with Shearwater (2001–2010), Bill Callahan, The Angels of Light, Lisa ...
of
Swans,
Jaimie Branch
Jaimie Breezy Branch (June 17, 1983 – August 22, 2022) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer.
Biography
Branch was born in Huntington, New York, on June 17, 1983. She started playing trumpet at age nine. At age 14, she moved to Wilmett ...
,
Laraaji, and
Ikue Mori, joined the project.
''Medicine Singers'' was released in July 2022, earning recognition from NPR's ''
All Songs Considered'', ''
The New Yorker'',
Third Man's ''Maggot Brain'', and others in the music press.
References
External links
Medicine Singers on Joyful Noise RecordingsStone Tapes official website
{{Authority control
Joyful Noise Recordings artists