Classical music meets native music with Choctaw and United Homa Native Nations international musician Grayhawk in an improv collaboration with the Loyola Symphony Orchestra.
Greyhawk and his band, accompanied by his daughter and nephew, will perform three extended songs, featuring chants and callbacks with the orchestra.
The songs, some of which are over 1,000 years old, will be sung in indigenous languages.
Loyola music professor Jean Montès and Grayhawk have been brewing up the idea of a collaboration for several years.
“It’s time to just do it,” Grayhawk said.
Grayhawk focuses on sharing his native language, stories, and histories through music. He said he wants to break down stereotypes and show true native music.
“I want to tell stories and where they come from,” he said. “We aren’t just guys who do pow-wows, we know music.”
The performance aims to showcase the depth of Native music, demonstrate improvisation through combining and bending traditional genres, and connect through music.
Montès and Greyhawk, who have known each other the past 15 years, have worked on blending their different cultures and musical backgrounds with Haitian and Native heritages, Grayhawk said.
Montes stresses the importance of rhythm, connection, harmony, and emotions to his students.
He encourages students to close their eyes and feel the rhythm within.
“Feel it!” he tells them
Grayhawk has a similar philosophy when it comes to improvisation.
“If you know it, it happens, I feel it,” Grayhawk said. Improvisation is “confidence within yourself,” he said.
The performance will be held in Roussel Hall on Feb. 3 at 6:30 p.m.
Grayhawk encourages the public to “come in and have a good time.”
