- Delbert Anderson is the trumpeter and frontman for the Farmington jazz ensemble D’DAT.
- He was named the recipient of a Cultural Capital Fellowship on Jan. 25, which comes with the $10,000 grant.
- Anderson, who’s Navajo, was one among 12 people nationwide to be named a 2023 fellow.
FARMINGTON — A bunch of local highschool jazz musicians may have the chance to take their act on the road this summer, due to their mentor, who recently secured a $10,000 grant to supply the scholars with technical support and skilled training.
Delbert Anderson, trumpeter and frontman for the Farmington jazz ensemble D’DAT, was named the recipient of a Cultural Capital Fellowship on Jan. 25, which comes with the $10,000 grant. The fellowship was presented to Anderson by the First Peoples Fund, which is billed because the nation’s oldest Native-led organization dedicated to supporting indigenous artists. Anderson, who’s Navajo, was one among 12 people nationwide to be named a 2023 fellow.
Anderson said he’ll use the cash to construct a curriculum for the group The Third Hour, which consists of eight local highschool students who began performing jazz music together over a yr ago. Anderson became acquainted with the group when he saw it perform at Farmington’s Encore Coffee in February 2022, and he was so impressed with the scholars’ talent and ambition that he asked if he could mentor them.
The scholars agreed, and Anderson quickly worked to integrate The Third Hour into the community music programs at San Juan College, where he was an adjunct instructor. He also set about finding the group other performance opportunities and pushing the bounds of the musicians, helping them not only change into more technically proficient, but to proceed to experiment with improvisation, a necessary skill within the jazz world.
“I could tell there was a certain hunger,” he said, explaining what drew him to The Third Hour. “They were thoroughly disciplined, too. They could be critiqued and won’t have an issue. They’re good listeners.”
Anderson said musicians within the group were already improvising the primary time he saw them, something he thought to be remarkable amongst players of such a young age.
“It’s really cool to see a bunch so young in Farmington doing that,” he said. “I never had that likelihood once I was young.”
Anderson — who’s developing the curriculum with Farmington High School band director Alex Olivas and Franklin Piland, a Texas middle school music educator who arranges material for D’DAT — is intent on demonstrating to the young musicians that constructing their improvisation skills is something that can serve them well each as musicians and as people.
“Improvisation can change your life,” he said, noting that he wants the young musicians to learn to roll with the punches that the musical world and the true world throw at them. “Those that live by improvisation are likely to get along higher. You’re going to be higher off in the event you’ve done a variety of preparation for anything. That’s what this system goes to show – be prepared for all times’s events.”
Anderson plans for instance that time by citing the challenges the Navajo people faced after they launched into the Long Walk, after they were forced at gunpoint by the U.S. Army to march from their homeland within the 4 Corners area to Bosque Redondo in eastern Latest Mexico within the 1860s. The Navajo people survived only because they learned to adapt to recent surroundings and recent circumstances before they were allowed to return home a few years later.
Anderson is teaching the members of The Third Hour to adopt some Native tunes for his or her repertoire, and he said the group has plans to perform a few of that material when it goes right into a Santa Fe studio later this yr to record. He said he was enormously pleased by the proven fact that some members of the group already are composing original material at a time when most young performers are content to perform standards.
“They’re starting to play what they wish to play now,” he said. “And the stuff they’re coming up with is pretty advanced. … That’s refreshing, and it’s nice to see.”
The highlight of the group’s experience will are available in June, when The Third Hour embarks on a five-day tour arranged by Anderson, with performances scheduled in Farmington, Gallup and Santa Fe, in addition to Cortez and Ignacio in Colorado.
“The thought is to get them equipped and able to tour, in addition to give them insight into what touring really is,” he said.
Rachel Nez, the First Peoples Fund fellowships program manager, said in a news release announcing the fellowships that the organization’s 2023 recipients are an exciting and empowering mixture of artists and culture bearers “who’re ensuring cultural and ancestral knowledge continues to be practiced of their communities.”
Lori Pourier, the president of the First Peoples Fund, said within the news release the organization believes within the transformative power of the artists and culture bearers to strengthen and uplift communities.
“Irrespective of their medium, each artist shares a story reflecting their incredible range of indigenous cultures across the USA,” she said. “Whether growing their entrepreneurial spirit or revitalizing, reconnecting and reclaiming ancient Indigenous practices, their work illuminates what is feasible and inspires others. Their success creates a ripple effect that impacts their community and beyond.”
The grant attached to Anderson’s Cultural Capital Fellowship is simply the most recent money award he has earned in recent times. Whilst D’DAT’s star continues to rise nationally and internationally — the group might be featured in an upcoming Latest York Times profile and perform before 1000’s of individuals in October 2022 in Johannesburg, South Africa, as a part of legendary rocker Peter Gabriel’s World of Music Art and Dance Festival — Anderson has secured tens of 1000’s of dollars in grant money that he has used to construct the Farmington music scene and promote local music education.
During its foray to South Africa, D’DAT performed and recorded with Navajo singer Alexandria Holliday and Nelisiwe Mtsweni, a South African singer of the Zulu people. Anderson said a single from that collaboration might be released on March 8, while a complete album of fabric will come out on April 1 on a South African label.
Anderson is expecting the recording to make a major splash, especially since The Latest York Times piece is being timed to coincide with its release.
“What that thing comes out, it’s going to be crazy,” he said.
To capitalize on that, D’DAT is within the strategy of organizing a release event in Latest York City in June or July, he said. That engagement might be nestled in amongst a slew of dates D’DAT already has booked this yr, a series of shows that features performances in Missouri, South Dakota, Washington, California and Colorado, together with a return trip to South Africa for this yr’s WOMAD Festival.
It’s all a bit dizzying for a bunch that just just a few years ago was virtually unknown outside the 4 Corners area.
“There’s a lot momentum occurring straight away,” Anderson said.
Mike Easterling could be reached at 505-564-4610 ormeasterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.