NPR’s Scott Detrow talks with Ana Gonzalez and cellist Yo-Yo Ma about their new podcast Our Frequent Nature from WNYC, which connects music with nature and place.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Bear in mind the early days of the COVID pandemic again in 2020, when lots of people felt trapped of their houses or residences? That was a time when cellist Yo-Yo Ma began interested by reconnecting with the outside.
YO-YO MA: I grew up in cities – you realize, concrete. However you realize what? The older I get, the extra I am interested in locations the place there are extra bushes than folks. And the extra I perceive issues, I understand that we’re truly a part of nature.
DETROW: So he stepped out of the live performance corridor and teamed up with host Ana Gonzalez to journey the nation and make music in nature with individuals who have deep connections to the Earth. The end result was “Our Frequent Nature,” a restricted podcast collection this fall with WNYC and Sound Postings. I spoke with Yo-Yo Ma and Ana Gonzalez about their podcast, and we began our dialog with an excerpt from their first episode in Maine’s Acadia Nationwide Park throughout a dawn efficiency with Wabanaki musicians.
(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, “OUR COMMON NATURE”)
LAUREN STEVENS: (Chanting in non-English language).
I knew it was essential to carry out the welcome music. That music is essential for each time we collect or each time there have been visiting tribes as that welcome, as that form of place to begin.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Chanting in non-English language).
(SOUNDBITE OF CELLO MUSIC)
STEVENS: This was the primary time I had ever heard our conventional music with a nontraditional instrument. And to listen to the welcome music performed by Yo-Yo on the cello, it resonated internally. Like, I might really feel it in my physique. It vibrated my soul.
(SOUNDBITE OF CELLO MUSIC)
DETROW: First, Ana, are you able to describe what was occurring in that scene?
ANA GONZALEZ, BYLINE: Positive. Yeah. That was one of many first items that you simply’re listening to from this dawn efficiency, and that was the – it was the summer time of 2021. It was, you realize, proper as daybreak was breaking. And the girl you are listening to, her title is Lauren Stevens. She’s a Wabanaki singer, and she or he is describing performing this conventional music that she had grown up singing that meant so much. It meant so much about inclusion and bringing folks collectively.
And, you realize, this isn’t a standard ceremony as a result of these aren’t allowed to be recorded, however this was form of a means for the musicians like Lauren Stevens and Chris Newell, who’s enjoying the drum in that recording, to present Yo-Yo and different individuals who have been current only a style of what it means to welcome the solar with music, how music generally is a automobile for each connecting folks to one another but in addition the pure occurrences which might be occurring throughout us.
MA: Scott, I’ve to say one thing – that, you realize, all of us spend a lot time searching for function and that means…
DETROW: Yeah.
MA: …And to discover a group of those who it is so apparent what that means is to them, and to be welcomed into their group, into their circle of belief and – after, you realize, rising up at daybreak, which is form of somewhat daunting typically, you realize? However all of us – we sat in a circle and everyone – it is like a Quaker ceremony. You already know, folks simply would converse and converse their thought. And – you realize, and it is a vast circle of individuals – scientists, Native folks, group members. The governor was there. Deb Haaland was there – the secretary of the inside at the moment – our first Native secretary of the inside. And to have that form of dialog, it is a world opening, and it simply offers you a special perspective on life.
DETROW: While you’re invited into an intimate setting like that, I really feel like it might go two methods. You’ll be able to really feel self-conscious and questioning about whether or not it’s best to actually be there or whether or not you actually belong there. Or you’ll be able to embrace it and really feel that welcome, you realize, invite and absolutely take part. And I think about the enjoying of music is a strong draw to the latter choice. Is that proper?
MA: Completely. I feel – properly – and dealing with Ana is outstanding as a result of she is each current and stealth. I imply, you realize, you do not discover it, and she or he’s recording…
DETROW: (Laughter).
MA: …Completely every thing, which is a outstanding…
GONZALEZ: With permission. With permission.
DETROW: That is good (laughter).
GONZALEZ: Sure.
MA: Completely, with permission. However the factor is I – we’ve – an important factor on the planet is belief. And if somebody trusts you, they’re keen to information you into their world. And there are not any hidden agendas. I am not trying to take one thing from folks. I am not trying, you realize, to realize. We’re truly curious, and we needed to indicate appreciation and to study. And if that is your angle, I feel most frequently, folks will say, good, I am going to present you what we’ve, you realize? And one factor I’ve realized working in tradition is that in tradition, you by no means break a relationship. When you kind a relationship, it is eternally.
DETROW: What do you consider that, Ana? I imply, I feel this podcast is about connection in a second the place it feels more durable and more durable and at occasions inconceivable, however you are…
GONZALEZ: Yeah.
DETROW: …Capable of finding it by this mix of things.
GONZALEZ: I imply, like Yo-Yo mentioned, music actually helps. And coming in with, like, this openness, this curiosity of – this fact of, like, we’re completely different. Now we have completely different experiences. I do know that. I do not know what your expertise is, and I’m right here for the only real function of studying about them if you wish to inform me about them. So it was an actual train for me as a journalist to be like, I am simply, you realize, right here to study and produce out the humanity and who they’re and get the laughs, get the music, get the massive feelings and determine what makes them that three-dimensional individual, who everyone is.
DETROW: Yeah. Yo-Yo, I am questioning, you realize, as you are touring in all of those completely different outside environments, you realize, I am questioning in case you ever thought, like, man, I want I performed the flute as a substitute of the cello, dragging (laughter) the cello round all these locations.
MA: Oh, that is humorous. You already know what? I do not really feel like I – properly, possibly typically a fantasy I ought to play an instrument that matches in my pocket.
DETROW: (Laughter).
MA: However what I do understand increasingly more is that this type of search to attempt to perceive is definitely what fuels my music. So lots of people say – you realize, ask, you realize, what are you interested by? What, you realize – are you making an attempt to realize perfection, excellence? It simply – no, I take advantage of approach to try to be capable of report precisely my witnessing of one thing that’s significant. And in that sense, I feel Ana and I’ve the identical targets.
DETROW: Yeah.
MA: You already know, we’re reporters on, in a means, the human situation as we exist in nature.
DETROW: That is cellist Yo-Yo Ma, in addition to producer Ana Gonzalez. Their new podcast, “Our Frequent Nature,” is out now. Thanks a lot for speaking to us about this.
GONZALEZ: Thanks, Scott.
MA: It is nice to speak with you.
DETROW: “Our Frequent Nature” is out there wherever you get your podcasts.
(SOUNDBITE OF SEIJI OZAWA, ET AL.’S “HUMORESQUE NO. 7 IN G-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 101”)
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