Recipient of the New Mexico Music Commission’s 2017 Platinum Music Award for lifetime achievement, Arlen Asher (1929-2020) is one of New Mexico’s long-standing jazz luminaries. Born in 1929 in a small farming community in Missouri, Asher moved to Albuquerque in 1958. Prior to becoming a full time musician, he worked as an award-winning producer and announcer for KNME-TV, KOB-TV and KHFM radio. He left broadcasting to establish a private woodwind studio in 1965 and since then has been teaching woodwind fundamentals and jazz improvisation to hundreds of students throughout the US. In the 1970’s, he formed the Arlen Asher-Bob Brown Quartet, which formed the basis of two jazz television series for KNME-TV and a series of concerts that included guest artists such as trumpeter Clark Terry. In 1994, Arlen Asher joined drummer, John Trentacosta’s group, Straight Up. Asher has appeared on numerous CD’s including his own 2002 release, Another Spring , featuring a virtual Who’s Who of New Mexico jazz talent. He also appears on Straight Up’s recording Live Jazz in the Desert, a top selling local jazz CD in New Mexico. Straight Up has appeared at many jazz festivals, including the Tucson and Sedona Jazz Festivals and Jazz In The Sangres in Colorado. At 84, Arlen Asher remains active as a performer as well as hosting “The Jazz Experience” broadcast every Monday morning on Santa Fe Public Radio station, KSFR. Along with Arlen Asher, woodwinds; Straight Up features leader, John Trentacosta, drums, NY trumpeter Michael Morreale; Albuquerque born, NY based pianist, Tony Regusis; and Michael Olivola, bass.
above: Arlen Asher’s tribute video from the 2017 Platinum Music Awards show at the Lensic. Filmed and edited by Bunee Tomlinson of Windswept Media. Produced by the New Mexico Music Commission Foundation, David Schwartz Executive Producer.
When he was asked as a student at Zuni Elementary School in the late ’60s to write an essay about what he wanted to be when he grew up, Fernando Cellicion didn’t really have to think on the subject too long. He always wanted to be a famous musician, known all over the world. Flash forward to 1996. Cellicion is performing as part of a group of Native American musical artists on-stage at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Would his teacher and fellow students have believed that this would happen? No way. They looked at him as an oversize goofball, certainly not the type of person who would become a celebrity. But he is not the first accomplished musician to have been regarded practically with contempt by his peers, and indeed these sorts of deep feelings usually work their way back up to the surface, providing a musician’s work with emotional integrity. This is definitely the case with Cellicion, who has performed a variety of traditional music. However, he is best-known as a recording artist who stands out on the traditional Indian flute, performing in a genre in which there are many copy-cats, insipidly one-dimensional players, and compact discs practically reeking of incense and/or scented candles.
“It took a lot of work and not listening to critics, just keeping my focus,” Cellicion has said of his career success, which has also led to performing before royalty in France. An artistic background at home surely helped motivate him. His father, Roger Cellicion, founded the dance group the Traditional Zuni Dancers to preserve and pass on his knowledge of Zuni culture to his children. Eventually the group would be taken over by son Fernando, and it would become one of the artistic vehicles that has led to performances all over the world.
He began writing his own original compositions and learning a variety of traditional Zuni music when he was 22, resulting in more than ten different recordings released on labels such as Indian Sounds, Essential Dreams, and Oyate. His love affair with music really began in middle school with the band, which he joined because he was under the impression it would be a way to get out of doing schoolwork. In his first year, he played a baritone horn, but as is the case with many great players, not all that much was accomplished in the first 12 months of his musical life. He does claim, though, that by year’s end he could play a B-flat scale and “The Marine’s Hymn,” which is probably more than one could say for Eminem after selling millions of records. By the next year, Cellicion was making quick progress on his horn, falling more and more in love with being a musician and even starting to tamper with other instruments. By the time he graduated from high school, he was apparently playing a dozen different instruments. For eight years after high school, Cellicion played with the Zuni Pueblo Indian Band, eventually becoming the assistant director. In the ’80s, he became involved in powwows and organized a drum group. Not long after that, Cellicion tried playing a standard recorder. He noticed the similarities of the recorder to the flute, an instrument that he had always liked but had never really played. Soon after, he bought a Native American-style flute for only a few bucks and began to teach himself to play by following along on sides cut by R. Carlos Nakai and Tree Cody. Most of the songs recorded on his first album were pieces that he composed on the recorder. This was the first of several volumes, entitled The Traditional and Contemporary Indian Flute of Fernando Cellicion, released on the Indian Sounds label. He immediately established that he had created a unique repertoire, including not only music from the Zuni, Navajo, and Comanche people, but also interpreting Christian spirituals such as “Jesus Loves Me.” It was a time of declining interest in Native American music, with only about five well-known artists performing and recording on the traditional flute. Nonetheless, Cellicion found himself situated at the starting gate because there would soon be a contrasting rise in interest in what he was doing, with the lyrical sound of Indian flute music also appealing to the exploding new age market.
He put together a collection of close to a dozen flutes, all sizes and shapes, most of them gifts from their makers. After mastering some of his musical idol’s songs, he began to develop his own style and write his own music. He became known for creating a trance-like mood by his use of soft and delicate flute playing, often incorporating his velvety yet pock-marked voice. Native American mythology tells us that the flute was created by a woodpecker under direct orders from one of the gods, and the first man to play one found that it brought him many wonderful things, including marriage to the chief’s daughter. Perhaps the instrument has not brought Cellicion such a bride, but nonetheless his music has brought him to 17 countries, as well as demanding travel throughout the U.S. He also performed in Istanbul in the late ’90s. In 2001, his dance group took part in a massive festival of international artists in Taiwan. The group has also performed at a broad range of venues, including the World Music Festival in Tokyo and at the Gallup, NM, Intertribal Ceremonials, New Mexico State Fair, Connecticut River Rendezvous. They have also played at parades, celebrations, pow-wows, and other functions throughout the United States and have won many top honors in dance competitions.
In addition to his recording and touring successes, Cellicion has also been featured in several movies and television shows, such as Good Morning America and the Today show. His concerts have been featured on National Public Radio and National Native News, the latter program produced out of Anchorage, AK.
~ Eugene Chadbourne
above: Fernando’s tribute video from the 2017 Platinum Music Awards show at the Lensic. Filmed and edited by Bunee Tomlinson of Windswept Media. Produced by the New Mexico Music Commission Foundation, David Schwartz Executive Producer.
Recipients of the 2017 Governor’s Arts Award in music, Ken Keppeler and Jeanie McLerie, known the world over as Bayou Seco, are not only extraordinary performers but they are ambassadors of New Mexico music. They have made significant contributions to New Mexico by preserving the cultural heritage of Hispanic and Cowboy folk music, and bringing it to life for future generations through their performances and teaching. McLerie has been a professional musician since 1962, performing in the United States, Canada and Europe with the groups Sandy & Jeanie, The Harmony Sisters and the Delta Sisters.
For more than 30 years, she has taught fiddle instruction to children through “The Fiddling Friends,” which focuses on an international repertoire of fiddle styles and music, with an emphasis on the sources of the music. Keppeler, a fourth generation Southwesterner with roots in New Mexico, Arizona and California, grew up with the music of the region and has been a professional musician since 1972. He plays fiddle, harmonica, banjo, and accordion and is also a violin maker. Together in Bayou Seco they are renowned for their “chilegumbo music,” which celebrates the cross-cultural music of the Southwest. Former State Folklorist Claude Stephenson said Keppeler and McLerie were instrumental in helping to bring the old traditional Hispanic style music of such New Mexico legends as Cleofes Ortiz, a violinist from Bernal, into the mainstream of the folk music scene. Cipriano Vigil of El Rito, who received a Governor’s Arts Award in 1994 for traditional music, said he has known and admired Keppeler and McLerie since the early 1980s. “So many other people know our music because of their efforts,” Vigil said. Rus Bradburd, an associate professor at New Mexico State University, said Bayou Seco have found and kept alive traditional dances in Albuquerque, Silver City, Las Cruces and Mesilla.
“Simply put, nobody else in the history of our great state has done so much for the music and gotten so little personal gain,” Bradburd said. “In a world overrun with smart phones, iPads, iTunes and technology gone wild, Keppeler and McLerie have pushed in the other direction. To them, the oldest magic is the best kind – the music that gets you dancing, the love of tradition, the respect for roots and older people.”
above: Bayou Seco performing, “Happy One Step” at their home in Silver City, NM, 2014. They share, “A tune we learned directly from Dennis McGee while living in SW Louisiana in 1978 and 1979. He would come and sit on our back porch on Saturday mornings and we’d play tunes and visit.”
written by Bob Ferguson (1927-2001) and performed by Waylon Jennings (1937-2002) in 1967.
The song appeared on Waylon’s 1967 album “Love of the Common People”.
Lyrics
To Taos pueblo out in New Mexico.
One night my weary feet did go
So I stopped that night in Taos.There’s a story in Taos town
That if a stranger comes around.
When a fresh snow is on the ground
A new love will be born in Taos.That night there came a snow
In the mountains and the valleys below
And I found a love that’s true I know
In Taos, New Mexico.[Instrumental]That night in Taos town
It seemed love was all around
And the pretty little girl I found
A new love was born in Taos.
From the first time we met
I knew her love would always be true
And I know I’ll always love her too
The love that I found in Taos.
Some night if it should snow
There’s a place you really ought to go
There’s a legend that it’s true
I know in Taos, New Mexico…
No copyright is claimed in the above creative examples and to the extent that material may appear to be infringed, the New Mexico Music Commission asserts that such alleged infringement is permissible under fair use principles in U.S. copyright laws. If you believe these materials have been used in an unauthorized manner, please contact us.
The Pimentel brothers guitar makers are, top, Robert, left, and Rick and bottom, Victor, left, and Augustin. rkimball@abqjournal.com Wed Feb 04 10:31:14 -0700 2015 1423071073 FILENAME: 186796.jpg
Pimentel & Sons Guitar Makers ~ Albuquerque
soure: abqjournal.com
At the age of 14, Lorenzo Pimentel began apprenticing at his brothers’ guitar-making shop in Mexico. His passion for the craft helped him advance quickly, and soon after he was building guitars on his own. At the age of 23, he came to the United States where he began making guitars in a violin store. In 1951, he moved to Carlsbad, where he opened his own shop. It wasn’t long before he’d mastered creating exquisite classical guitars. Four of his sons each embraced his legacy, and four decades later, the family name is known around the world as the best guitar makers alive. They’re the only ones who make each instrument completely by hand, tailored specifically to each customer.
The Pimentel brothers can’t imagine doing anything else. Their expertise, perfectionism and love of the art have made guitar making their calling. They are Rick Pimentel, now President of Pimentel Guitars, specializing in Acoustic guitars; Robert Pimentel, Vice President, specializing in Concert Classical guitars; Victor Pimentel and Agustin Pimentel. They have each inherited their father’s incredible talent and raised it to a whole new level, creating guitars unparalleled in craftsmanship and beauty.
Recognition from the Diocese of Las Cruces Foundation and Las Cruces Mariachi November, 2001
Acoustic Guitar Players’ Choice Award June, 2000
The Governor’s Awards for Excellence and Achievement in the Arts October, 1994
The Blue Chip Initiative May, 1993
The Smithsonian Institute’s 12th Annual Festival of American Folklife October, 1978
above: Made In New Mexico host, Nikki, heads over to Pimentel and Sons Guitar Makers in Albuquerque to find out about the customized personal process that goes into making the one of a kind guitars. Learn about the family legacy and all that is offered at the shop itself. Thank you to KRQE Television for this wonderful video segment featuring the Pimentel family.
No copyright is claimed in the above creative examples and to the extent that material may appear to be infringed, the New Mexico Music Commission asserts that such alleged infringement is permissible under fair use principles in U.S. copyright laws. If you believe these materials have been used in an unauthorized manner, please contact us.
Founded in 1959 by the legendary Kenneth Lloyd Higgins and his wife Wanda, Hummingbird Music Camp gives children ages 8 through 14 an opportunity to experience band, guitar, orchestra, piano, and voice with musical direction provided for all levels of players. Today, the camp is operated by Higgins children Les Higgins, Sally Chapman, and Teena King.
Nestled by the Jemez River in the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico, Hummingbird Music Camp offers every child an opportunity to grow as an individual, a team player, and as a fine musician under the guidance of a talented and nurturing staff. Hummingbird Music Camp provides a home away from home for children to express themselves and their talents.
Although music is taken very seriously at the camp, the focus is not on competition. The children are encouraged to grow musically on their chosen instruments by starting their musical instruction at their current level of ability. Campers get to show their parents how much they’ve learned and grown when they perform on the Sunday afternoon concert.
Watching children’s musical talents and personalities blossom at Hummingbird was one of Kenneth Lloyd Higgins’ greatest joys, and in fulfillment of his dream the hills surrounding Hummingbird Music Camp are alive with music.
The New Mexico Music Commission and Foundation extend their sincere condolences to the Higgins Family for the passing of Wanda in May of 2018. Wanda was a beloved and highly respected matriarch of New Mexico’s music community. She is dearly missed.
above: Hummingbird’s video biopic filmed and edited by Bunee Tomlinson of Windswept Media and produced by the New Mexico Music Commission Foundation. The video was premiered at the 2018 Platinum Music Awards show, Lensic Performing Arts Center.
No copyright is claimed in the above creative examples and to the extent that material may appear to be infringed, the New Mexico Music Commission asserts that such alleged infringement is permissible under fair use principles in U.S. copyright laws. If you believe these materials have been used in an unauthorized manner, please contact us.
