Mirabal - Hope & The Dance

Ever since I had posted some other American Indian music I had been trying to think of who this particular musical artist was and couldn't find his songs anywhere so I ended up digging through my cd collection just so I could feature these 2 songs. It turns out I had been confusing him with another artist and that's why I couldn't find anything. Robert Mirabal is from the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico and had started his musical career as a flute player whose music could be described as traditional Indian flute music. In 1997 he put out a cd simply titled Mirabal that featured a new direction for him. It fused traditional Indian, rock, funk and other forms of modern music.



The album featured bassist Mark Andes who was known for his playing in the groups Spirit and Heart as well as traditional drummer Reynaldo Lujan and John Mellencamp band members guitarist Andy York and drummer Kenny Aronoff. It was a sharp contrast to what fans had been used to and represented a new, daring musical direction full of unknown possibilities.



I've also decided to include this video that appeared on PBS with his backing band Rare Tribal Mob as well as dancers in full regalia.