Robert Mirabal
Encyclopedia
Robert Mirabal is a Pueblo
musician and Native American flute
player and maker from Taos Pueblo
, New Mexico
.
His flutes are world renowned and have been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution
's Museum of the American Indian. An award-winning musician and leading proponent of world music
, Mirabal performs worldwide, sharing flute songs, tribal rock, dance, and storytelling.
Mirabal was twice named the Native American Music Awards
' Artist of the Year, and received the Songwriter of the Year award three times. He was featured in Grammy Award
winning album, Sacred Ground: A Tribute to Mother Earth
in 2006 for Best Native American Music Album
Mirabal also published a book of storytelling
poetry and prose in 1994 entitled Skeletons of a Bridge and is currently writing a second book, Running Alone in Photographs. Aside from his artistic talents, Mirabal is a father and a farmer, living in Taos Pueblo and participating in the traditional ways and rituals of his people.
at home and began making flutes at the age of 19. In school, he had learned how to play clarinet, saxophone, piano, and drums, but found his true musical voice in the traditional Native American flute
. He met the renowned Native American flute
player R. Carlos Nakai
as a young man and was greatly inspired by him.
He moved to New York City
, playing in a multicultural band made up of a Senegal
ese guitarist, a Cape Verde
an drummer and Haiti
an keyboardist. There, Mirabal immersed himself in the sound of hip-hop, funk
and R&B, which would inform his later trademark music.
He recorded an independent debut album in 1988, and went on to land a contract with Warner Western and later, Silver Wave Records. His first projects were generally focused on traditional music consisting of Native American flute
and percussion. One of his early albums, entitled Land was originally composed for two Japanese avant-garde
modern dance
rs Eiko and Koma, who choreographed a dance production inspired by their impressions of the land around Taos. Cedar
and clay flutes, percussion, rattles, and traditional vocals were used throughout the album. Reynaldo Lujan, a percussionist who would go on to collaborate with Mirabal for over a decade, played on the album along with Mark Andes
. Each song told a different story about the land around Taos Mountain. The acclaimed performance toured Japan, Europe and the U.S. and in 1992, Mirabal was given New York’s Dance and Performance Bessie Award for the score.
In 1996, Mirabal collaborated with Grammy Award
-winning Native American singer-songwriter Bill Miller
on an album Native Suite-Chants: Dances and the Remembered Earth. The project was both experimental and traditional, featuring flute and percussion as well as Mohican
pow-wow singing.
All these disparate interests and experiences led to the band Mirabal in 1995. Bassist
Mark Andes
, from the '60s band Spirit
and '80s rock group Heart
, joined Robert along with Reynaldo Lujan. In 1997, they released the groundbreaking album Mirabal that fused rock, funk, and other contemporary forms of music with traditional music, drawing on the legacy of other Native American pop/rock musicians (such as Buffy Sainte-Marie
) but creating a unique sound that would set Mirabal apart and gain further mainstream attention.
Mirabal came to greater national prominence during his performance in PBS' 1998 musical dance production, Spirit: A Journey in Dance, Drum, and Song, for which he composed the soundtrack with traditional flute and percussion. Due to the popularity of the program, the network went on to produce a music/dance program centered entirely on Mirabal and his traditional/rock fusion music in 2002, entitled Music from a Painted Cave. The program and its corresponding CD release were enthusiastically received by mainstream audiences and became a benchmark world music
album. He also collaborated with John Tesh
for the acclaimed PBS One World TV special for the millennium in 2000, which showcased music from around the world.
Mirabal's In the Blood CD (2007) on Star Road Records (www.starroadrecords.com) was featured in New Mexico Magazine
for their October 2007 issue. The reviewer wrote that "it is one of his finest to date." His native state's tourism magazine lauded the CD's "lively danceable rhythms (that) should appeal to mainstream radio.... Mirabal (is) one of the trailblazers of tribal rock....
Mirabal was also featured in a New Mexico Magazine
story about Native American flute players.
In 2011 Miribal joins the avant-garde string quartet ETHEL
for a collaborative tour titled Music of the Sun. This is his second collaboration with the group, with whom he performed at BAM's
Next Wave Festival in 2008.
Pueblo
Pueblo is a term used to describe modern communities of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States of America. The first Spanish explorers of the Southwest used this term to describe the communities housed in apartment-like structures built of stone, adobe mud, and other local material...
musician and Native American flute
Native American flute
The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound, used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. The instrument was originally very personal; its music was played without accompaniment in courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. Now it...
player and maker from Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo
Taos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Taos speaking Native American tribe of Pueblo people. It is approximately 1000 years old and lies about north of the modern city of Taos, New Mexico, USA...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
.
His flutes are world renowned and have been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
's Museum of the American Indian. An award-winning musician and leading proponent of world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, Mirabal performs worldwide, sharing flute songs, tribal rock, dance, and storytelling.
Mirabal was twice named the Native American Music Awards
Native American Music Awards
The Native American Music Awards , commonly known as the Nammys, are an awards program presented annually by The Native American Music Association & Awards, which recognizes outstanding musical achievement among Native Americans...
' Artist of the Year, and received the Songwriter of the Year award three times. He was featured in Grammy Award
Grammy Awards of 2006
The 48th Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 8, 2006 at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Irish rock band U2 were the big winners, winning five awards including Album of the Year. Mariah Carey, John Legend, and Kanye West each were nominated for eight awards and won three,...
winning album, Sacred Ground: A Tribute to Mother Earth
Sacred Ground: A Tribute to Mother Earth
Sacred Ground: A Tribute to Mother Earth is a compilation album of Native American music released through Silver Wave Records on September 13, 2005...
in 2006 for Best Native American Music Album
Grammy Award for Best Native American Music Album
The Grammy Award for Best Native American Music Album was an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording artists for quality albums in the Native American music genre...
Mirabal also published a book of storytelling
Storytelling
Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, images and sounds, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation and in order to instill moral values...
poetry and prose in 1994 entitled Skeletons of a Bridge and is currently writing a second book, Running Alone in Photographs. Aside from his artistic talents, Mirabal is a father and a farmer, living in Taos Pueblo and participating in the traditional ways and rituals of his people.
Musical career
Raised traditionally by his mother and grandparents on the pueblo, and born in 1966, Mirabal spoke TiwaTiwa languages
Tiwa is a group of two, possibly three, related Tanoan languages spoken by the Tiwa Pueblo, and possibly Piro Pueblo, groups in the U.S...
at home and began making flutes at the age of 19. In school, he had learned how to play clarinet, saxophone, piano, and drums, but found his true musical voice in the traditional Native American flute
Native American flute
The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound, used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. The instrument was originally very personal; its music was played without accompaniment in courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. Now it...
. He met the renowned Native American flute
Native American flute
The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound, used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. The instrument was originally very personal; its music was played without accompaniment in courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. Now it...
player R. Carlos Nakai
R. Carlos Nakai
Raymond Carlos “R.” Nakai is a Native American flautist of Navajo/Ute heritage.-Biography:Born Ray Carlos Nakai, in Flagstaff, Arizona, he released his first album, Changes, in 1983...
as a young man and was greatly inspired by him.
He moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, playing in a multicultural band made up of a Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
ese guitarist, a Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
an drummer and Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an keyboardist. There, Mirabal immersed himself in the sound of hip-hop, funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
and R&B, which would inform his later trademark music.
He recorded an independent debut album in 1988, and went on to land a contract with Warner Western and later, Silver Wave Records. His first projects were generally focused on traditional music consisting of Native American flute
Native American flute
The Native American flute has achieved some measure of fame for its distinctive sound, used in a variety of New Age and world music recordings. The instrument was originally very personal; its music was played without accompaniment in courtship, healing, meditation, and spiritual rituals. Now it...
and percussion. One of his early albums, entitled Land was originally composed for two Japanese avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
modern dance
Modern dance
Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:...
rs Eiko and Koma, who choreographed a dance production inspired by their impressions of the land around Taos. Cedar
Cedar wood
Cedar wood comes from several different trees that grow in different parts of the world, and may have different uses.* California incense-cedar, from Calocedrus decurrens, is the primary type of wood used for making pencils...
and clay flutes, percussion, rattles, and traditional vocals were used throughout the album. Reynaldo Lujan, a percussionist who would go on to collaborate with Mirabal for over a decade, played on the album along with Mark Andes
Mark Andes
Mark Andes is an American musician, known for his work as a bassist with Spirit, Jo Jo Gunne, Firefall, Heart, and Mirabal.-Early life:...
. Each song told a different story about the land around Taos Mountain. The acclaimed performance toured Japan, Europe and the U.S. and in 1992, Mirabal was given New York’s Dance and Performance Bessie Award for the score.
In 1996, Mirabal collaborated with Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
-winning Native American singer-songwriter Bill Miller
Bill Miller (musician)
Bill Miller is a Native American singer/songwriter of Mohican heritage. He was born on the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation, near Shawano in northern Wisconsin....
on an album Native Suite-Chants: Dances and the Remembered Earth. The project was both experimental and traditional, featuring flute and percussion as well as Mohican
Mohican
-Native Americans:* Mahican , a Native American tribe who lived in and around the Hudson Valley* Mohegan, a functional confederation of several branches of Native Americans during the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century...
pow-wow singing.
All these disparate interests and experiences led to the band Mirabal in 1995. Bassist
Bassist
A bass player, or bassist is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass, bass guitar, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or sousaphone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments...
Mark Andes
Mark Andes
Mark Andes is an American musician, known for his work as a bassist with Spirit, Jo Jo Gunne, Firefall, Heart, and Mirabal.-Early life:...
, from the '60s band Spirit
Spirit (band)
Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/progressive rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California.- The original lineup :...
and '80s rock group Heart
Heart (band)
Heart is an American rock band who first found success in Canada. Throughout several lineup changes, the only two members remaining constant are sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson. The group rose to fame in the 1970s with their music being influenced by hard rock as well as folk music...
, joined Robert along with Reynaldo Lujan. In 1997, they released the groundbreaking album Mirabal that fused rock, funk, and other contemporary forms of music with traditional music, drawing on the legacy of other Native American pop/rock musicians (such as Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie, OC is a Canadian Cree singer-songwriter, musician, composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire includes...
) but creating a unique sound that would set Mirabal apart and gain further mainstream attention.
Mirabal came to greater national prominence during his performance in PBS' 1998 musical dance production, Spirit: A Journey in Dance, Drum, and Song, for which he composed the soundtrack with traditional flute and percussion. Due to the popularity of the program, the network went on to produce a music/dance program centered entirely on Mirabal and his traditional/rock fusion music in 2002, entitled Music from a Painted Cave. The program and its corresponding CD release were enthusiastically received by mainstream audiences and became a benchmark world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
album. He also collaborated with John Tesh
John Tesh
John Frank Tesh is an American pianist and composer of pop music, as well as a radio host and television presenter. His 10-year-old 'Intelligence for Your Life Radio Show' reaches 14.2 Million listeners/week, and is syndicated by Teshmedia on 400 stations in US, Canada, and the UK...
for the acclaimed PBS One World TV special for the millennium in 2000, which showcased music from around the world.
Mirabal's In the Blood CD (2007) on Star Road Records (www.starroadrecords.com) was featured in New Mexico Magazine
New Mexico Magazine
The New Mexico Magazine launched in 1923, is the first state magazine founded anywhere in the nation, preceding Arizona Highways. New Mexico Magazine publishes a monthly print edition, maintains a website, and also prints and sells books, posters, notecards and many other gift items.-Overview:Based...
for their October 2007 issue. The reviewer wrote that "it is one of his finest to date." His native state's tourism magazine lauded the CD's "lively danceable rhythms (that) should appeal to mainstream radio.... Mirabal (is) one of the trailblazers of tribal rock....
Mirabal was also featured in a New Mexico Magazine
New Mexico Magazine
The New Mexico Magazine launched in 1923, is the first state magazine founded anywhere in the nation, preceding Arizona Highways. New Mexico Magazine publishes a monthly print edition, maintains a website, and also prints and sells books, posters, notecards and many other gift items.-Overview:Based...
story about Native American flute players.
In 2011 Miribal joins the avant-garde string quartet ETHEL
Ethel (string quartet)
ETHEL is a New York based string quartet that was co-founded in 1998 by Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Todd Reynolds, violin; and Mary Rowell, violin. Unlike most string quartets, ETHEL plays with amplification and integrates improvisation into its performances...
for a collaborative tour titled Music of the Sun. This is his second collaboration with the group, with whom he performed at BAM's
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
Next Wave Festival in 2008.
Discography
- Song Carrier (1995)
- Land (1995)
- Warrior Magician (1996)
- Native Suite (1996, with Bill MillerBill Miller (musician)Bill Miller is a Native American singer/songwriter of Mohican heritage. He was born on the Stockbridge-Munsee reservation, near Shawano in northern Wisconsin....
) - Mirabal (1997)
- Native American Lullabies: Under The Green Corn Moon (1998)
- Taos Tales (1999)
- Music from a Painted Cave (2001)
- Indians, Indians (2003)
- Sacred Ground: A Tribute to Mother EarthSacred Ground: A Tribute to Mother EarthSacred Ground: A Tribute to Mother Earth is a compilation album of Native American music released through Silver Wave Records on September 13, 2005...
(2005, compilation) - Johnny Whitehorse (2005)
- Pueblo Christmas (2007, with Patrick Mirabal)
- In the Blood (2007)
- Johnny Whitehorse: Totemic Flute Chants (2007)