Billy Martin - Black Elk Speaks CD

*Reduced from $23.00*

This CD is a compilation of spontaneously composed percussion recordings inspired as a musical adaptation to the spirit, visions, and stories of the great Oglala Sioux warrior and medicine man, Black Elk. With the exception of "Stridulations" - performed by the Komodo Whirligig Orchestra - each track consists of solo compositions.

"In this time of great struggle for tribes worldwide to live in peace, I find it necessary to remind all people to read the classic and timeless book, Black Elk Speaks." * -Billy Martin, October 21, 2001

Black Elk Speaks will be a very limited edition release, with only 900 copies printed; each hand-numbered and signed by Billy Martin. The album will be available exclusively through the Amulet Records website, The Home Grown Music Network, and at live performances by Martin's celebrated jazz trio, Medeski Martin & Wood.

Martin recorded the music on Black Elk Speaks over the course of several years and in various locations, including his own apartment and MMW's Brooklyn studio, Shacklyn. He utilized an eclectic variety of percussion instruments, including traditional drum kit, Chinese gongs, Japanese temple blocks, African mbiras, antique concert drums and Brazilian agogo bells.

Black Elk Speaks is Billy Martin's second solo release on Amulet Records. In 2001 he released illy B Eats, an album of live percussion beats and samples for use by DJs.

Tracks:
1- Killing the Drought
2-8 - Stridulations
9- Six Grandfathers
10- 12 - Metamorphosis
13- Whirlwind Chaser
14 - 18 - Starlings
19- The Ghost Shirt
20- illy-Stridulating
21- The Day-Break Star Herb of Understanding
22- Bon Bon Champs

*Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux. University of Nebraska Press