Album Review
When one thinks of great flute playing in world music, certain traditions immediately come to mind — Japanese shakuhachi playing, Andean flute playing in South America, the bansuri flute of India, and of course, Native American flute playing. The latter is the forte of Maryland flutist Jan Seiden, whose Woodland Winds is devoted to original compositions but is still quite faithful to the spirit of traditional Native American instrumental music. These days, contemporary Native American music is moving in a variety of directions — modern Cherokee, Navajo, Lakota, or Sioux artists are likely to incorporate anything from folk-rock to new age to Asian or African music. There are Native American singer/songwriters who are influenced by Ani DiFranco or Sarah McLachlan, there are Native American musicians who are seriously interested in Latin pop or reggae, and there have even been examples of Native American rappers who live on reservations and consider LL Cool J and Jay-Z their musical role models. But that sort of experimentation isn't where Seiden is coming from on Woodland Winds; her approach is strictly traditional on these meditative, hauntingly tranquil performances (all of them unaccompanied). In order to make this CD as authentic as possible, Seiden plays various handmade flutes that were designed for her by professional Native American flute makers, including Billy Crowbeak, Hawk Littlejohn (an actual medicine man), and Danny Bigay — and it's a difference that you can feel even if you don't know all the technical differences between the various types of wooden flutes that are played in traditional Native American culture. Of course, Seiden obviously knows the differences, and her expertise serves her impressively well on these moving, soulful performances.
