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 fascinated with 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 individuals. And the extra I perceive issues, I notice that we’re really 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 outcome 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 necessary to carry out the welcome music. That music is necessary for each time we collect or each time there have been visiting tribes as that welcome, as that form of start line.
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 just’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 identify is Lauren Stevens. She’s a Wabanaki singer, and he or she is describing performing this conventional music that she had grown up singing that meant loads. It meant loads about inclusion and bringing individuals 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 method for the musicians like Lauren Stevens and Chris Newell, who’s enjoying the drum in that recording, to offer 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 car for each connecting individuals to one another but in addition the pure occurrences which are occurring throughout us.
MA: Scott, I’ve to say one thing – that, you realize, all of us spend a lot time searching for objective 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 a bit of daunting generally, you realize? However all of us – we sat in a circle and everyone – it is like a Quaker ceremony. , individuals simply would converse and converse their thought. And – you realize, and it is a large circle of individuals – scientists, Native individuals, 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 distinct perspective on life.
DETROW: Whenever you’re invited into an intimate setting like that, I really feel like it may well go two methods. You possibly can 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 totally take part. And I think about the enjoying of music is a robust draw to the latter choice. Is that proper?
MA: Completely. I believe – effectively – 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 he or she’s recording…
DETROW: (Laughter).
MA: …Completely all the things, 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 – now we have – an important factor on the planet is belief. And if somebody trusts you, they’re keen to information you into their world. And there aren’t any hidden agendas. I am not seeking to take one thing from individuals. I am not wanting, you realize, to realize. We’re really curious, and we needed to indicate appreciation and to study. And if that is your perspective, I believe most frequently, individuals will say, good, I am going to present you what now we have, you realize? And one factor I’ve realized working in tradition is that in tradition, you by no means break a relationship. When you type a relationship, it is without end.
DETROW: What do you concentrate on that, Ana? I imply, I believe this podcast is about connection in a second the place it feels tougher and tougher and at occasions not possible, however you are…
GONZALEZ: Yeah.
DETROW: …Capable of finding it by way of this mix of things.
GONZALEZ: I imply, like Yo-Yo stated, music actually helps. And coming in with, like, this openness, this curiosity of – this fact of, like, we’re totally different. Now we have totally different experiences. I do know that. I don’t know what your expertise is, and I’m right here for the only real objective 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 work out 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 totally different out of doors environments, you realize, I am questioning if you happen to ever thought, like, man, I want I performed the flute as an alternative of the cello, dragging (laughter) the cello round all these locations.
MA: Oh, that is humorous. what? I do not really feel like I – effectively, perhaps generally a fantasy I ought to play an instrument that matches in my pocket.
DETROW: (Laughter).
MA: However what I do notice 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 fascinated with? What, you realize – are you attempting to realize perfection, excellence? It simply – no, I exploit approach to attempt to be capable of report precisely my witnessing of one thing that’s significant. And in that sense, I believe Ana and I’ve the identical targets.
DETROW: Yeah.
MA: , we’re reporters on, in a method, 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 accessible 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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