NPR’s Scott Detrow talks with Ana Gonzalez and cellist Yo-Yo Ma about their new podcast ‘Our Widespread Nature’ from WNYC, which connects music with nature and place.
ANDREW LIMBONG, HOST:
For the well-known cellist Yo-Yo Ma, it took these early days of the pandemic, when numerous of us had been trapped of their properties or residences, to actually begin eager about reconnecting with the outside.
YO-YO MA: I grew up in cities – you recognize, concrete. However you recognize what? The older I get, the extra I am interested in locations the place there are extra bushes than folks. And the extra I perceive issues, I notice that we’re truly a part of nature.
LIMBONG: 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 result’s a restricted podcast collection referred to as “Our Widespread Nature,” with WNYC and Sound Postings. Yo-Yo Ma and Ana Gonzalez spoke with my colleague, Scott Detrow, about their new podcast, they usually began 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 vital to carry out the welcome tune. That tune is vital for each time we collect or each time there have been visiting tribes as that welcome, as that form of place to begin.
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 tune 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)
SCOTT DETROW, BYLINE: First, Ana, are you able to describe what was taking place in that scene?
ANA GONZALEZ, BYLINE: Certain. 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 season of 2021. It was, you recognize, proper as daybreak was breaking. And the girl you are listening to, her title is Lauren Stevens. She’s a Wabanaki singer, and she or he is describing performing this conventional tune that she had grown up singing that meant loads. It meant loads about inclusion and bringing folks collectively.
And, you recognize, this isn’t a conventional 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 taking part in the drum in that recording, to present Yo-Yo and different individuals who had been current only a style of what it means to welcome the solar with music, how music could be a automobile for each connecting folks to one another but additionally the pure occurrences which can be taking place throughout us.
MA: Scott, I’ve to say one thing – that, you recognize, all of us spend a lot time in search of objective and that means…
DETROW: Yeah.
MA: …And to discover a group of those that it is so apparent what that means is to them, and to be welcomed into their neighborhood, into their circle of belief and – after, you recognize, rising up at daybreak, which is form of a little bit daunting generally, you recognize? However all of us – we sat in a circle and all people – it is like a Quaker ceremony. You understand, folks simply would communicate and communicate their thought. And – you recognize, and it is a extensive circle of individuals – scientists, Native folks, neighborhood 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 special perspective on life.
DETROW: If you’re invited into an intimate setting like that, I really feel like it will possibly go two methods. You possibly can really feel self-conscious and questioning about whether or not you must actually be there or whether or not you actually belong there. Or you may embrace it and really feel that welcome, you recognize, invite and totally take part. And I think about the taking part in of music is a strong draw to the latter possibility. Is that proper?
MA: Completely. I believe – effectively – and dealing with Ana is exceptional as a result of she is each current and stealth. I imply, you recognize, you do not discover it, and she or he’s recording…
DETROW: (Laughter).
MA: …Completely all the things, which is a exceptional…
GONZALEZ: With permission. With permission.
DETROW: That is good (laughter).
GONZALEZ: Sure.
MA: Completely, with permission. However the factor is I – we now have – crucial factor on this 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 trying to take one thing from folks. I am not trying, you recognize, to achieve. We’re truly curious, and we wished to indicate appreciation and to study. And if that is your angle, I believe most frequently, folks will say, good, I am going to present you what we now have, you recognize? 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 ceaselessly.
DETROW: What do you concentrate on that, Ana? I imply, I believe this podcast is about connection in a second the place it feels more durable and more durable and at instances inconceivable, however you are…
GONZALEZ: Yeah.
LIMBONG: …Capable of finding it via this mixture of things.
GONZALEZ: I imply, like Yo-Yo mentioned, music actually helps. And coming in with, like, this openness, this curiosity of – this fact of, like, we’re totally different. We have now totally different experiences. I do know that. I do not 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 recognize, right here to study and produce out the humanity and who they’re and get the laughs, get the music, get the large feelings and work out what makes them that three-dimensional individual, who all people is.
DETROW: Yeah. Yo-Yo, I am questioning, you recognize, as you are touring in all of those totally different out of doors environments, you recognize, I am questioning should you 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. You understand what? I do not really feel like I – effectively, possibly generally a fantasy I ought to play an instrument that matches in my pocket.
DETROW: (Laughter).
MA: However what I do notice an increasing number of is that this sort of search to attempt to perceive is definitely what fuels my music. So lots of people say – you recognize, ask, you recognize, what are you eager about? What, you recognize – are you attempting to attain perfection, excellence? It simply – no, I take advantage of approach to try to have the ability to 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: You understand, 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. The brand new podcast, “Our Widespread Nature,” is out now. Thanks a lot for speaking to us about this.
GONZALEZ: Thanks, Scott.
MA: It is nice to speak with you.
(SOUNDBITE OF SEIJI OZAWA, ET AL.’S “HUMORESQUE NO. 7 IN G-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 101”)
LIMBONG: “Our Widespread Nature” is on the market 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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