Compilation CD features hits, obscure works

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REVIEW

Children of the World

Various Artists

Group Concept Music 1994

Sub-titled A Compilation Of Some Of Native Canada's Best Music, Children of the World is also a collection of some historically important music. The tracks are selected from previously released albums and represent 30 years of contemporary Native music recording in Canada.

The most popular and, at times, obscure music of Willy Dunn, Shingoose, Don Ross and Gerry Saddleback present out-takes from previously released albums which were never widely available and were difficult to find until now, plus two tracks from Kashtin's first big selling self-titled album.

Included in the backup-vocal lineup on Willy Dunn's 194 title-song is an impressive new-comer, Fara. Susan Aglukark appears briefly in this capacity along with Shingoose and Don Ross.

The album opens with Cree Grass Dance by Gerry Saddleback, a track taken from Willy Dunn, released in 1969, published by White Roots of Peace/Akwesasne Notes. Another song from that album (initially released on a self-titled 1967 album on Summus/Boot Records and was distributed by London Records of (Canada) is Little Charlie, a ballad of a 12 year-old boy who, in the early 1960s, died of exposure in the middle of winter while trying to get back to his family after escaping from a residential school near Kenora, Ontario. "The song is a microcosm of a very large problem, and a symbol of repressive colonialism," says Dunn, who is well known for his protest songs but is "more popular in Europe than I ever have been here in Canada."

The Pacific is excerpted from an album of the same name which was released first in Germany and then in Canada by Boot Records in 1983.

Dunn's history as a filmmaker stretches as far back as his popularity as a songwriter/performer. As an activist, Dunn continues to work on documentaries while helping Native youth develop an interest in the importance of maintaining their languages.

The compilation also includes three compositions by award-winning Micmac guitarist, Don Ross, one from each of his Duke Street Records releases: Bering Strait, Don Ross, and Three Hands.

Since winning the 1988 U.S. National Guitar Championship in Winfield, Kansas, Ross has become one of the most respected acoustic artists in the business,. After recently signing on with Sony Music, he is now putting the finishing touches on a fourth album during breaks from concert tours, local gigs, and composing for radio dramas produced by Gary Farmer's Laughing Dog Plays.

Ross refuses all labels and identity politics to describe his music and is trying to project himself as a stylist without being limited by quick, convenient descriptions.

Described as a pioneer in the development of the Native country sound, an active supporter of Native film, performing arts and more recently, assigning in the development of the Aboriginal Music of Canada category for the Juno Awards, Shingoose is represented by two original favorites.

Indian Time originally appeared on a 1975 tour-track mini LP called Native Country which was produced by Bruce Cockburn and released through the Native Council of Canada. That song was re-recorded on Natural Tan, a 1988 independent cassette released on his Headband record label that included Nowhere Tonight, also resurrected on Children of the World. Long before he produced the two Indian Time television specials, Shingoose co-wrote the title song to the 1975 NFB documentary 'The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau'.

Kashtin's premier release went platinum in Canada during its first year and proved the Innu duo to be an overnight sensation. For a Native music art, such an achievement was unheard of until then and caused many records execs to take Aboriginal music more seriously. Pakuakumit and Tshinanu from their first self-titled album released on the Group Concept Music label in 1989, highlight the commercial sound which opened doors not only for Kashtin but for other new Native performers inthe business.

Their second disc, is not sampled and Children of the World appeared before their third album, Akua Tuta, released intentionally after they signed on with Sony Music last year. Moreover, the tracks represent an important turning point for Native music in terms of underlining the immense commercial potential it now beginning to enjoy within the industry.

Willy Dunn's most recent composition appears as the title song from the project. After being absent from the recording scene in North America for more than a decade, his return is celebrated by many of the key names working in the Native music recording industry. The album concludes with a message to youth encouraging them to stay in school and take their cultural heritage seriously. The messages are spoken in seven languages including Cree, Ojibway, Abenaki, Inuktitut, French and English.

Children of the World is an interesting cross-section of some key moments and musicians in contemporary Native music and is being distributed by Group Concept Music.