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Reggae: Telling a universal story of struggle |
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Written by Glenn BurnSilver
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Thursday, 12 July 2007 |
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 Reggae is the music of the downtrodden, and American Indians have fit that description throughout United States history.
So if at first blush it seems strange that a Hopi Indian is a reggae singer, put in the aforementioned context, it’s not so out of place.
“When I tell people I do Native American reggae music, the first thing they ask me is, ‘Oh, do you have any feathers?’ We have incorporated a little bit of native chant and drums into our music, but we try to go beyond the beads and feathers,” Casper Lomayesva said. “I’m trying to bring to the audience that, but just because we are native people, it doesn’t mean we are doing Native American music. The music is from the same tree, but it’s a different branch.”
Instead of perfecting his beats in Kingstown, he does it in the arid Southwest.
“I’ve lived here my whole life and this is hot even for me. It’s just awful,” Lomayesva said over a crackly cell phone from the inside of his cooler tour bus. Lomayesva and his touring group, The 602 Band, were heading home following a gig at the Paradise Casino in Yuma, Ariz. — outdoors, in the middle of the day. “It was crazy man. The casino operators don’t know what they’re doing.”
Lomayesva knows a bit about playing casinos. As a Hopi, he is invited to play a lot of casinos. But his is not tribal music. Rather, Lomayesva does reggae music with an American Indian slant, a “tribal stew,” that mixes in spoken word, hip-hop, rock and Spanish cumbia with just a hint of powwow drumming and chanting.
Lomayesva was first drawn to reggae music after attending a Michigan & Smiley concert in Hopiland, where numerous Jamaican artists like Black Uhuru, Dennis Brown, Freddie McGregor and Steel Pulse have traveled to perform. Lomayesva was captured as much by the musical rhythms as by the cultural similarities.
The music is also a rallying cry for change and hope. Lomayesva explained that reggae music captures the poverty and despair of Hopiland as much as it does its native Jamaica. He decided to use the music to “bring some hope to the Hopi youth,” but first went to Jamaica, the source, for inspiration and clarity.
“It was this new energy, and I knew I found my calling, but I wanted to see exactly what I was getting into. I wanted to discover the essence of it,” he said. “I went to Jamaica on my own to learn about the music and culture firsthand. I wanted to be sure of what I was singing about. … I left with a sense that there are poor people all over the world, and they are no different than people on the reservations in America.”
Lomayesva took inspiration from that trip and today spreads his message of hope across the United States.
His perspective comes from the Southwest, not a Caribbean island, but his use of reggae music promotes that message with as much power as any true-blood Jamaican.
“We all have these things we have to deal with that are awful. I don’t care if you are black, white, Hispanic or whatever. We’re all dealing with things in some way,” he said.
“As far as Native Americans doing reggae music, well, it’s an original thing. It doesn’t matter who we are — music is universal. I’m just trying to reach the masses with our message.”
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GO TO THE SHOW
Casper and The 602 Band
2 p.m. Sunday, July 15
Mishawaka Amphitheatre
13714 Poudre Canyon Highway, Bellvue
482.4420
$5
with The Atoll
www.3rdmesa.com
—————
PLAYING CASINOS
Casper Lomayesva and The 602 Band play a lot of tribal casinos. Lomayesva at first had a difficult time playing in such places. It wasn’t his music, but the mixed message of the casinos. On one hand they bring in money to the impoverished people of the reservations, but on the other promote gambling of that money and serve alcohol, the No. 1 killer of American Indians. Rather than avoid these places, Lomayesva now sees his performances as an opportunity to spread his message of hope and change for native people.
“It wasn’t easy to get into casinos, and I certainly have my own bias,” he said. “But we have the opportunity to go into these places and play, and hopefully reach some of them. It’s a fine line, a very fine line.”
GLENN BURNSILVER | Only registered users can write comments.
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