We just got home from Arizona, where I delivered a talk on speaking and listening skills to an audience of 800 real estate leaders at the annual conference of Buffini & Co, the extraordinary business founded by the brilliant Brian Buffini. That was in Phoenix, where it was an unseasonable 46C - just 30C warmer than Orkney! I took the family on this trip so that we could have a week’s holiday in lovely Sedona, up on the Colorado Plateau where the temperature is more bearable and the red rocks glow.
During that week, we drove out to explore a bucket list destination - the unique, otherworldly landscape of Monument Valley. We booked with Navajo Spirit Tours and were blessed to have as our guide Travis Mose, a Navajo multi-instrumentalist and profoundly spiritual man who opened our eyes, ears and hearts to the ways of the Diné (the Navajo word for their nation, meaning the People). At the end of the tour, Travis took us to a special place where he loved to play music with his brother, who sadly passed away.
Travis was happy for me to film what he did, and I am thrilled to share it with you. I had only my iPhone with no external mic or ‘dead cat’ muffler, and there was a breeze. I’ve done my best to minimise wind noise with some EQ, whilst leaving the sound as intact as possible, so I hope that the little that remains doesn’t detract from your enjoyment of these two very powerful short pieces, the first on the Navajo double flute and the second an Apache song with drum accompaniment.
Travis’s performance included one of the most thrilling sounds I have ever experienced. You’ll hear it in the second piece as he strikes the frame drum for the first time: a massive, overwhelming echo from the huge butte you can see in the background. It had a visceral effect on me: it was the sound of the desert stone singing back to a man whose roots are deep in the ground there.
Travis, thank you for giving us these never-to-be-forgotten moments. I hope you all enjoy them as much as we did.