Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg

More than mariachis

International musician Xavier Yxayotl plays notes from ancient past

Mexican music.

What is it and from whence did it come? Interesting questions, both. The answers are equally intriguing and may surprise you.

Admit it, when you think of Mexican music, isn't it the brassy sounds of bandas Sinaloan, the twang of Tejano or norteño tunes, or the guitar and violin mix of mariachis that first come to mind? Or perhaps something more escuelo vieja like a line or two from Vicente Fernandez' Volver, Volver?

Maybe the sound of Mexico evokes the Gu-Achi Fiddlers' waila music (also known as chicken scratch) a sound best described as the Lawrence Welk Band meets Tohono O'odham dance music. The music is most frequently heard on and near the Tohono O'odham, Gila River and Pima Salt River reservations and northern Sonora.

And yet, there are musicologists who say these bandas, mariachis, accordion and guitar-rife melodies are not the true music of Mexico, but in fact, an evolution of the imported Spanish/European instruments and melodies.

For some, like artist/musician Xavier Quijas Yxayotl (pronounced "ix eye oatl"), these types of music now widely accepted as "Mexican" are relative newcomers and not to be confused with the real, indigenous music that resounded throughout the land before Cortez' arrival.

INSTRUMENTS MADE BY HAND

Yxayotl believes the sounds of Mexico are found in the ancient instruments of Mexican Indian civilizations like the bubaleks - a Mayan water gourd drum also used by the Yaqui Indians; the huehuetl, the Aztec drum carved from a hollowed tree trunk; or the tapitzalli ("flute" in Nahuatl language) made from wood, clay or bamboo.

Born in Guadalajara, Yxayotl started his art career as a precocious 8-year-old freshman at the University of Guadalajara.

"We were a poor family but my mother knew I had an aptitude for art. She took me to the university principal on a Friday and he looked at my drawings, paintings and poems. He told her to bring me back on Monday. He told the teachers, 'He is my little friend, and I want you to treat him like a normal student'."

He attended for the next six years, delivering newspapers and working other jobs to help pay for his art supplies.

In the 1970s, bolstered by his grandfather's expertise in ancient flutes and drums, Yxatotl went to live with the Huicholes and Tepehuanes in Jalisco and Nayarit, immersing himself in the ancient cultures while sharing their indigenous ceremonies. It was here, he says, the passion for making the handmade instruments grew.

Studying ancient manuscripts and mentored by older Mexican artists, he began to construct his own replicas of the ancient pre-Columbian instruments to produce "the same music that was prohibited for 300 years due to its intensity and deep spiritual impact it had on the people of those times."

"From 1534 the Conquistadors prohibited the drums and flutes. People would have their hands cut off if they played their instruments," says Yxayotl, who is as much a teacher as an artist/musician.

A GLOBAL AUDIENCE

In 1985 Yxayotl (Nahuatl for "tears") organized America Indigena, a group that performs and interprets the authentic music of the Mayans, Aztecs, Tarahumaras, Yaquis, Tepehuanes and Huicholes.

With this soul-stirring, ancient music, he and the group has traveled the world, playing before auspicious audiences like those at last year's United Nation's New York Gala and the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Opening Ceremonies.

"It's been so wonderful. At the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies in Italy, the Dalai Lama, (Mikhail) Gorbachev and all the big heads of the world were there. We blessed them with copal (incense). And, while we played some very meditative music, the Dalai Lama was praying in front of us. It is all so amazing. It's a lot of hard work, too, but that's fine."

America Indigena also performed at the 2002 Grammy Awards.

Phoenix-area residents will see Yxayotol and America Indigena at two venues this February and March: the Scottsdale Center for the Arts February 27 and March 1, and the Heard Museum March 3-4.

For more information, visit the group's Web site at www.yxayotl.com. Recordings and videos are also available through Phoenix-based Canyon Records and its Web site: www.canyonrecords.com.