Robertson a catalyst for tapestry of sound

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At the age of 51, Jaime Robbie Robertson is one of those handful of rock music veterans who shows no sign of resting on past glories.

An hour-long conversation with the man who penned one great song after another when he was with The Band confirms Robertson is passionate when it comes to his art.

Robertson is on the promo trail plugging his latest project, The Red Road Ensemble: Music for The Native Americans, a CD of Native music done for the WTBS cable TV series, The Native Americans.

For the project, he found himself in the enviable position of being a catalyst in the best sense of the word. Robertson, who is part Mohawk, collaborated with other Native North American musicians such as Kashtin, The Coolidge sisters (Rita and Priscilla), Priscilla's daughter Laura, famed percussionist Alex Acuna Spotted Eagle and the singing group, Ulali, and others.

The end result is a brilliant tapestry of sounds that destroys any myths or pre-conceived notions about Native music.

"I got to be the key that could help get this music to a bigger audience and break down some of those myths," said Robertson, who as a child spent summers on the Six Nations Reserve in Ontario.

"The music isn't what we're been fed via Hollywood movies."

A Canadian now residing in Los Angeles, Robertson hasn't done this much talking to the media since The Last Waltz was released.

"I think this project would have come about anyway, but the television series Native Americans was the opportunity I needed to assemble all these musicians, and I jumped when I was approached.

"Every tribe has its strengths. Some have the drumming down, others are vocal masters weaving these voices together that can send shivers through you. We also wanted to show how the music isn't old-fashioned," says Robertson of the tracks that ended up on the CD. A lot of the instrumental passages recorded for the five-part Native American series didn't end up on the disc.

"I've known the women in Ulali for close to eight years and had wanted to do something with them since I was first introduced to their music, and the same goes for Kashtin. There is a pipeline for Native music and I'm always being sent tapes of musicians from all over the country."

As much as he was the catalyst for the recording sessions - which had him contributing six songs, six vocals and his distinctive guitar playing - it was an experience that also furthered his knowledge of Native culture.

"The research going into this was very time consuming and you begin to realize how little you know. I was listening to tapes made in 1907 that blew me away. The Smithsonian has an amazing collection. Then again there's all the sacred music that is understandably not allowed to be recorded."

Robertson, who hasn't toured since the original version of The Band packed it in, doesn't dismiss the possibility of this group of artists coming together again to perform.

"When we were recording I'd be standing there watching a group of singers who would be joined by drummers and then the dancers would fall in, and I'd think man this would be visually stunning to get on film. It's been suggested that once I have time to slow down for a minute we'll take a look at it."

Two of the other musicians who joined him during the recordings were his son and daughter Sebastian and Delphine.

"I really needed someone to play a conventional drum kit for the song Words of Fire, Deeds of Blood. Ninety per cent of the musicians involved are Native and because

I wanted to keep it that way I was having trouble coming up with someone who fit the bill.

"Then I realized my son, who is a drumming fool, was right there all along. It was sort of the same with my daughter, who sang the gorgeous background vocals on Coyote Dance."

During production of The Red Road Ensemble, Robertson was also juggling a couple of other projects.

"I just finished helping assemble The Band box-set that will be out in November. I hadn't listened to that music inyers and it blew me away," said Robertson. His face lit up with soft smile.

"Those guys really could do it all. The set will have quite a bit of previously unreleased material, some rough cut gems. Unfortunately, we lost a lot of good stuff that would have been included. A few years ago Garth Hudson's house burnt down. He's the group archivist, and tapes were destroyed in the fire.

"Also, a bunch of demo tapes were tossed out by Capitol and they had a lot of interesting pieces on them that the public had never heard, which is unfortunate."

One event where Robertson was most obvious in his absence was The Bob Dylan Tribute two years ago.

In one of his few moments of what seemed like necessary diplomacy, Robertson stated, "I was immersed in a film score at the time and couldn't do both, but I've done just about everything with Bob Dylan that one could possibly do. I think I'm all paid up in the Bob Dylan dues department, though. What I thought was unfortunate about the whole event, though, was that Sinead O'Connor being booed off the stage seemed to overshadow everything else."

"I heard that Eric Clapton was great at the Dylan thing and Eric and I have been working together on the possibility of doing an album together. We're going to reconvene soon and if we think we've got something to say and the fire is there, we'll go ahead with it."

Other than that, it's just that constant search to create or be involved in something that is vital and fresh.

And over the past 30 years it appears as though Robbie Robertson has been battling close to a thousand.