Two Worlds/Three Worlds – A. Paul Ortega (Canyon Records)
www.canyonrecords.com

When A. Paul Ortega first released these, his first two albums, in the 1960s it changed the contemporary Native American music scene forever by effectively creating a blueprint that has since inspired many artists throughout the world.

It was during the late 50s when the teenaged Ortega was playing bass in Chicago blues clubs that he first began to realise the urgent need for Native culture to be heard and reinvented for the modern, urban world. Hence Ortega developed a new voice that successfully expressed his people’s way of life and philosophy, adapting traditional melodies with his blues-influenced, finger-picked guitar style.

“There has to be meaning behind the music – a good sound is not enough”, clearly reveals this Mescalero-Apache medicine man’s approach to his art. Although this view was shared by many during the 60s when Ortega found himself in the limelight (particularly among the student community), it was especially true for the music of his people who, on the one hand, were cruelly misunderstood and still being subjected to racial prejudice, whilst simultaneously being sort out for spiritual and cultural guidance by others who were disillusioned with the ‘American Dream’.

Something of a worldwide ambassador for the Indian Nations, Ortega still travels and performs but spends most of his time doing tribal healing work alongside medical doctors as part of the Indian Health Services programme. “Music is done to inspire the younger generation”, he says, so no doubt he will be very pleased about Canyon Records’ re-release of his seminal work on CD for the new millennium.

Buy now from:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com