(upbeat music) - [Announcer] This is a production of South Dakota Public Broadcasting.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Welcome to "Music Matters".

I am your host, Apolonia Davalos.

We build community through music and dedicate this episode to honor families.

Generations are connecting and coming together through the family music genre.

Levitt at the Falls invites musicians of diverse cultures devoted to delivering you hope and joy.

We begin with a fiesta./ Introducing Parents' Choice Foundation Gold Award winner and Latin Grammy nominee, Sonia de Los Santos.

(upbeat music) ♪ Fiesta, fiesta ♪ ♪ Fiesta, fiesta ♪ ♪ Fiesta, fiesta ♪ - I think music matters because its connects us to who we are.

In my case, music matters to me because it gives me a purpose.

Creating bilingual music for me is important.

First of all, I grew up speaking Spanish.

It's my first language, and I also grew up trying to learn English.

And I'm a student also.

So I'm speaking now in my second language.

And I feel like in the United States, there's so many people who are bilingual, who are hoping to be bilingual, and I think music and bilingual music is a great way to learn a second language.

I actually learned a lot of English by listening to music in English growing up.

So I think there's a big need for it.

And over the years I've seen a lot of, you know, great amount of music that's very representative of the bilingual communities also in the United States.

And I wanna contribute to that with my own version of it, which is more inspired of the folk Latin American traditions.

And with my experiences here in the United States and being surrounded by so much incredible music and musicians who have been so generous with their talents and writing with me and performing with me and my band mates are one of those people.

We're gonna do a turn.

All right, here we go.

My motivation for creating music for families is I like to see families together, enjoying something together, finding common ground, even between generations.

So I like to write music that it's, yes, for children, so it's made for them and it's okay for them to listen to.

But also I like to write songs and I like to go into messages that connect different generations in households.

So a baby's okay listening to the song, a five, 10 year old, a parent, a grandparent.

I like to write songs where people can find something in the song for them, even if it's a lyric or an old rhythm that they remember, just something, something.

And I think it's very important to keep families together, finding things that connect us all.

(Sonia singing in foreign language) ♪ Never ever lose our hope ♪ ♪ Never ever lose our hope ♪ - "Esperanza" is our third album, and Esperanza is a Spanish ward for hope.

And obviously the last few years have been very challenging for all of us.

And inspiration came from just being home, trying to find ways of staying hopeful, of observing around me and seeing the people who were really keeping us going.

Healthcare workers, teachers, parents, just people in general who were dedicating their service to others.

So that's inspiration for that song and just the album.

It's really just things and moments and places and people who really brought me hope in those times.

♪ Fandango, fandango, fandango ♪ - Fandango is something that happens in Mexico, but also these days all over the world.

It's like a community celebration, a party.

There's musicians, there's musical instruments, sometimes there's food, there's really community building around the fandangos and Son jarocho, that's the genre, one of the genres that we play in our songs.

It's played there.

So this song "Fandango", it's sort of like an homage to the musical celebrations that bring so much to our communities and where I have met so many wonderful people, including my band mates and I just love it.

And it's a fun song to dance to.

(Sonia singing in foreign language) (gentle music) I invite you to listen to our songs, but I also invite you to make music with your families.

Find a musical instrument, learn some songs you don't need a lot to put a family band together.

And you can use just your voices or ask someone in the family that has guitar, a ukulele, a piano, a harmonica, a kazoo.

You can start a band with just your voice and hand claps.

So I hope our songs you can find some inspiration and make me sit with your family.

(upbeat music) - The gift of music is for everyone.

Thank you, Sonia, for inviting us to make music in our homes with our families.

Continue celebrating with Sonia at soniadelossantosmusic.com.

Next, we cycle into Diné spinning songs fused with modern funk, jazz, and hip hop.

Native American ambassadors Delbert Anderson and James "Just Jamez" Pakootas embolden out of the box musicianship inspired by Navajo culture.

Let's meet D'DAT.

(upbeat music) ♪ In my lifetime under bright lights in the night time ♪ ♪ That's why I move, this is my fight, ♪ ♪ my dance, this is my life.

♪ ♪ Every step that I take, nothing left in my tank ♪ - The whole meaning of Diné music.

First of all, Diné Music was created and made around the everyday activity of the Diné people.

They have songs for cooking, playing, celebration, ceremony, even war.

And the thing I love about Diné music is it's very close to experience and to the people.

And we like to create from the Diné cultural music, a thing called Diné spinning songs.

And the spinning songs were actually songs that would teach the cultural, I guess manners, would always be, you always greet people, you always shake their hand, you stand up when someone greets themselves, very basic things.

And when I started to get a little deeper and was looking into fusion of these Diné songs with our modern funk, jazz, and hip hop, I went to the elders and asked if it was okay to use some of these songs in today's society, bring them back, so to speak.

And the elders were very open to it.

It was very surprising because they told me that just in general, a spinning song is kind of like a tornado and it picks up everything around you and it throws it out.

Whatever comes out comes out.

So in the sense meeting Nicholas Lucero, our drums, Mike McCluhan on bass, and James Pakootas on vocals, these are the guys I'm hanging around all the time.

So we're all mixed up in this spinning cycle, creating projects, creating new music.

And that in a sense made us all ambassadors for Native America in general.

♪ As you think about confidence ♪ ♪ You gotta step into every room ♪ ♪ like your ancestors are with you ♪ - From a lyrical standpoint, I have a very particular structure in the way that I teach.

And it's kind of interesting.

In 2015, I got in a drunk driving accident where I lost the use of my right arm from the elbow down.

And three months after the accident, I wanted to commit suicide, and my mom was there, thank God that she was there, my mom was there that day and kind of instilled, planted that seed of resilience that I was worth more, that I was worth something.

And I started going to counseling for PTSD.

I didn't know how to live a life without my right arm on right hand dominant.

And also, it was really difficult.

And I remember going through these exercises of PTSD and this booklet, and it was like these exercises to kind of get through the PTSD moments.

And for me, it was a way to identify my emotions and start to catalog those emotions and situations that are attached to those emotions so that I could figure out like what's a priority?

What is really affecting me in the moment?

And then maybe I'm just tripping in all of this stress and maybe I don't need to prioritize it.

I've used that exercise now as a way to connect with our youth.

I'll throw on whatever beat or whatever instrumental that we're gonna write to or do a whole number of them and let our youth choose, like what do you want to write to?

What type of feelings or emotions do you want to capture today?

Writer's block is a figment of the imagination.

It's just retraining your mind, retraining your thoughts to express themselves.

You've got stories that are hidden and laying dormant in your own minds, and it just takes maybe a new way to create or a new form of getting it out for you to get over that hump.

Our youth especially haven't been taught how to express themselves very often.

As natives, as a native man, we're taught to suffer in silence.

And that as a way to go about life.

So the retraining of this new age warrior mindset of expressing ourselves, talking about what's going on, and getting that stuff out.

Maybe we don't have people in our circles that we can trust.

So for our youth that don't have anybody that they can turn to, this is a perfect way for you to still cope with what's going on, write all that down and burn it, throw it in the garbage, or keep it, do whatever you want to do.

But at least you're still getting past these racing thoughts that never have a finish.

That's how I approach music being medicine in my own mind.

(upbeat music) - I like to approach music from sort of the history sense, and one very strong component that comes from jazz music in general is improvisation.

And I like to really spend a lot of time expressing how improvisation is so important in today's world.

Not everything goes the way you want it to.

And that's the whole study, that's the whole work of being a human being is being able to cope with anything that's been thrown at you.

No one loves a flat tire, but it's a skill that you have to pick up.

And improvisation is a skill.

It's a skill of learning new things, being creative, and expressing that in a way that will allow you to keep moving.

And I think the nature of our band, it's very personalized.

(upbeat music) Nicholas Lucero, his main love for music is in the funk and Latin area.

So that came through him.

Mike McCluhan, he's a Dead Head, the Grateful Dead.

He loves to jam, he just wants to jam.

And I came from a very jazz background.

However, when I dug deeper, I found these Diné spinning songs and thought it would be really neat to pair improvisation, jazz improvisation with these songs.

So everyone is bringing what they love to the table.

James, a great motivational speaker, has a lot of experiences.

He has a very great story.

So when you put all that together, that's how kind of hip hop meets jazz, funk, and jam.

- That's right.

Thank y'all for coming out.

Thank y'all so much.

- Thank you Delbert and James for reminding us how our culture's foundation bridges tradition and living in modern times.

Visit ddatlive.com to receive more of DDAT's music medicine.

Get ready to travel to Haiti.

We drum, dance, and sing in oneness with renowned Haitian performing artist Inez Barlatier.

♪ All of the glory, yeah ♪ ♪ This is how I live ♪ - My goal in my music as a person is to constantly look for the things that connect us rather than separate us.

Haiti is called Little Africa.

Haitian culture is from the country of Haiti.

It's a Taino word.

It means land of tall mountains, because when the Taino people were there, all they would see was mountains cascading into seas.

They go on forever.

It is a mixture of Taino people.

The same Taino people that went to Puerto Rico, Cuba, Bahamas, Jamaica.

It's a mixture of African peoples who are brought to Haiti.

And it also it has a French culture with it.

So Haitian culture has a back door spirituality and a front.

So we won our revolution with our spirituality.

We evoked spirits to come into our bodies.

We had a ceremony, and then our physical bodies with the help of the religion that was allowed, we were able to free ourselves.

And then Haiti helped many cultures become free.

They came to help Latin, they helped with the Latin Revolution, they helped with the American enslaved people here.

And so that culture about breaking barriers, becoming one is part of Haitian culture.

Many people don't know, but the enslaved people in Haiti only lasted about seven to 10 years and they would pass away really, really quickly.

So when the African people were brought there, they came from different parts of Africa.

And what they did was come together, put their culture together to become one, and to fight for their freedom, and became the first free black republic of the world, the first place in the world where everyone was free.

And it became a refuge for other people.

People from Ireland came to Haiti.

People from all over the world came to Haiti because we were the first to have freedom.

And then later on, it took years, decades for others to follow suit.

But also, Haitian culture is about the earth, it's about spirits.

It's about being one with the earth.

It's about so many things.

It's about connecting two worlds in one.

This song has a part for you to sing.

(upbeat music) I'm gonna say.

(singing in foreign language) ♪ Greetings I bring to you ♪ (crowd chanting in foreign language) ♪ Greetings I bring to you ♪ "Haiti: Stories and Songs from Haiti" is very special project to me.

It's a project talking about my culture.

And it's an interactive show with drumming, dancing, singing, and stories where I get to share parts of Haitian culture that you might not hear in media.

So this show came to be because it was needed.

And now I get to travel the world and share this education of Haiti and unite people in oneness.

(upbeat music) The kind of phrases and themes and topics I teach during my workshops are things, most importantly mental health.

Mental health is something that we deal with on a daily basis.

Everyone will deal with it whether you want to deal with it or not.

And it's something that is a missing piece for us to have that connection because we don't know that the person next to us may have the same issues that we're dealing with.

And through that we can connect and move forward and help others.

I also like to use a phrase from the tree language (speaking in foreign language) which is, "are you listening?"

And you say, "yes, I am listening".

I love doing this because no matter how old you are, you can silence a room with two words, which is a beautiful thing about African Oracle culture.

Also what I teach you in the workshop, themes I teach is how community, how playing a drum, listening to the person next to you, listening for a call and response, and playing rhythms together really teach us how to be one.

♪ Mama is rock, mama is rolling ♪ ♪ Mama is a rolling rock ♪ "Mama is a Rock" is a song I wrote for my mother.

Women play a very important role in my life, especially my mother because she sacrificed everything for me to be here in this moment.

And I wanted to make a song for her that told her in a big way that I love you and I honor you, and I'm gonna continue your legacy through my vessel, and I want the world to know how much I love you.

She's a tough woman.

I feel like my mom can do anything.

I feel like my mother is the reason why I am here today.

But also, I have many mothers in my life.

I have adopted many mothers and so they have played an important role in my life.

There's a line in the song that says "if they need something, I have to provide it".

And that's what my mom did for every breath I take, every meal I ate, every time I went to school, everything that she gave is a reason I am here today.

So I wanted a song for the world to know how much I honor my mom, how special she is.

I'm a child, I don't care when, how old I am, but I will always need a matriarch in my life.

Yes, we need the male influence too.

But mothers teach us how to care for others, how to be empathetic, how to use our intuition, how to know things without logic.

And mothers play important role because mothers rear us into society.

♪ Coming from a world of magic, magic ♪ I would like people to know that there is a way to understand that we are all the same.

Regardless of where we come from, the reason is the world is like it is now is because we lost sight of that fact.

No matter if I don't look like you, I still have a heart, lungs, I feel things, have emotions.

I have a brain just like you.

There's no such thing as us being two separate beings.

And I hope one day that with the help of music, activism, and spirituality, that we can return.

Return to a place where we lack hatred and hatred's a thing of the past.

♪ And finally, you will perceive your reality ♪ - Thank you Inez for sharing the spiritual revolution of the Haiti culture and honoring motherhood.

Explore further at inezinezinez.com.

We lift off into infinity plus one with Grammy winning family hip hop artist Secret Agent 23 Skidoo.

This mozartistic funky Wonka spins syllabic back flips, awakening our inner secret superhero.

"Music Matters" enters the intergalactic stage as we board the makeshift spaceship with Secret Agent 23 Skidoo.

♪ I called you, I can be what you want me to be ♪ ♪ Gotta dream first, then wake it up ♪ ♪ Wake it up, come on, wake up.

♪ - Dreams are the gateway to imagination.

And imagination is the gateway to life.

So the last full album that I made is called "Wake Up the Dream".

And it's a full on concept album where DJs Sub-C and Uncle Unc, which are actually your subconscious and your unconscious, are spinning your dreams all night long on WREM radio.

And so it got me thinking a lot about dreams.

And we tell kids and we tell ourselves, yeah, dreams are important, you know what I'm saying?

Follow your dreams, chase your dreams.

But dreams have such different meanings, right?

Because dreams are like your aspirations in life.

Dreams are your hopes, which you want to have happen, but dreams are also your daydreams and your nighttime dreams, which is just your imagination running wild.

And you know what?

They're both important.

And that is definitely what I like to remind kids.

And it's kind of at the core of my thing, which is why I'm so obsessed with dreams.

Because a lot of times your daydreams are how you end up getting to what you hope.

You know what I mean?

That's how you form your hope.

And it's also a lot of times what gives you the motivation and the inspiration to get to the things you want to get to.

We are all so much more brilliant than we think we are.

We're so limited and distracted by life that we don't realize that behind that, we're brilliant and we're connected, and we're connected to the planet and the universe and all that is.

And we have access to so, so much.

And sometimes it takes us dreaming or daydreaming or just kind of letting our mind run wild to be able to access that, to be able to get to how brilliant we truly are.

♪ Then you gotta agree, man I can't be you ♪ ♪ I gotta be me, so whatcha gotta be?

♪ ♪ I gotta be me, whatcha gotta be?

♪ ♪ I gotta be me ♪ - I've been an independent artist for a quarter of a century now.

Been on tour for 25 years.

A lot has changed in that time.

A lot in the industry has changed in that time.

I think that I've been real happy to be independent because you know what?

I can't get fired, you know, I can't fire me.

I've tried.

(laughs) But ultimately, being an independent means that you can just keep going and you can just keep developing and keep evolving your craft the way that you think you should.

Mimic what other people are doing, you make yourself replaceable.

And if instead you create something that no one else is doing, then you're irreplaceable.

I think that the combination of genres and elements that I put together, the specific type of storytelling that I do, and the audience that I aim it at, that's a really unique combination.

And so because of that, I've been able to enjoy a lot of longevity in this and I'm gonna keep going for quite a long time.

♪ Imaginary friend, I'm the imaginary friend ♪ ♪ Which means I'm imaginary then ♪ ♪ And I'm really not sure that he's wrong ♪ - What's important to me is I don't make kids music, I make family music.

And the difference there is kids music is for kids, family music is for everybody in the family.

We all share the same experiences, right?

Things that a friend of mine named Billy Jonas calls the primary colors, fear, love, excitement, hunger.

We all deal with those things.

So if we can create songs that speak about those things in a way that relate to both the kid and the crowd and the person that drove them there, then you have a song that unites the whole family.

We say boil it down, don't dumb it down.

I figured I'm gonna put out an album that kind of has a few different levels of stuff, some of which might be kind of directed at like a five or six year old, some of which might might be a little bit more complex, and then a couple that are just weird and just really where I wanna do everything I want to do and put it into a song.

And one of those songs, "Imaginary Friend", which is multiple grownups have said to me "thank you for teaching my child about existentialism through this song".

Because the concept is about an imaginary friend trying to convince the kid that he's actually the one that's imaginary, and that is so psychedelic that it's almost spooky.

And the music follows exactly the same feeling.

And that was when I put on there like, man, I love this song, but I don't know if people are even gonna get it.

That has been my biggest hit of my entire career and it just gave me the reassurance to follow the weirdness of my vision.

♪ Supersonic, symphonic, it's harmonic ♪ ♪ Together it's harmonic ♪ - So I got the opportunity to write a book for audible.com.

I'd love y'all to check it out because I think it's one of the most amazing things I've ever gotten to be a part of.

This book is about how to write rhymes and the craft of rhyme writing broken down in very thorough chapters on how to do it.

This is for young adults and also for adults.

And then in between we explore different cultures across the planet that really hold storytelling and songwriting in super high regard.

So it's called "Word is Born" by Secret Agent 23 Skidoo and Grandmaster Caz.

It's on audible.com.

It's free, so go check it out, listen to it, give us a review, tell us what you thought.

It's one of my favorite things that I've ever helped create, and it's something I want the world to know about.

♪ It's pretty spacious in my makeshift spaceship ♪ ♪ That I made with strange things in my basement ♪ - Thank you Secret Agent 23 Skidoo for encouraging us to let our imaginations run wild.

Enter a new world of dreams at secretagent23skidoo.com.

Thank you to our sponsor, the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation.

And thank you for watching "Music Matters".

I am your host Apolonia Davalos, I love you.