Ondar- Billboard Magazine Article

Tuvan 'Throat Singer' Meets U.S. Roots Acts on WB Set BY JIM BESSMAN NEW YORK- Country music from two widely separated but surprisingly related cultures comes together Tuesday (12) when Warner Bros. releases "Back Tuva Future" by Tuvan throat singer Kongar-ol Ondar. The cross-cultural undertaking was co-produced by David Hoffner and Jim Ed Norman. It mixes the preternaturally simultaneous multi--note vocalizing of traditional singers from the remote Central Asian, southern Siberian republic with similarly rootsy American country music styles. Ondar is joined by guest artists including Willie Nelson, Randy Scruggs, and Bill Miller, as well as by the late Nobel Prize-winning physicist and Tuva enthusiast Richard Feynman. The disc, which ends with a lengthy hidden track explaining the music and Ondar's vocal techniques, is also marked by extensive techno wizardry from Hoffner. There are several types of throat-singing, which is also known as over-tone or harmonic singing. Ondar, who won UNESCO's first International Festival of Throat-Singing in 1992, specializes in the sygyt (suh-gut) whistle-like style, which splits the vocal line into distinct melodic and drone threads. But he can sing as many as four notes at once and accompanies himself on doshpuluur (Tuvan banjo) and hoomus (Tuvan jaw harp). Ondar has two previous U.S. albums-"Echoes Of Tuva" and "Genghis Blues," with San Francisco bluesman/fellow throat-singing champion Paul "Earthquake" Pena; both were released on TuvaMuch Records. The seeds for the new album's novel fusion were planted some 10 years ago when Hoffner, a former keyboardist for Michael Martin Murphey and frequent sideman in sessions produced by Warner/Reprise Nashville president Norman, happened upon a PBS special on Feynman, the adventurous phvsicist who died in 1988 and whose achievements included solving the mystery of the space shuttle Challenger disaster. "I was casually watching, and they mentioned he had an interest in Tuva and played a bit of throat-singing, and I popped off the couch," says Hoffner. After eventually obtaining a few Tuvan music CDs, he gave one to Emmylou Harris, for whom he was doing session work. Harris mentioned the music in interviews, copies of which were eventually forwarded to Ralph Leighton, author of "Tuva Or Bust! - Richard Feynman's Last Journey." Leighton, associate producer of "Back Tuva Future," was a friend of Feynman's, a fellow drummer, and geography buff. He is founder of the Pasadena, Calif.-based Friends of Tuva, a clearinghouse for all things Tuva; having met Ondar in Tuva in 1991, he acts informally as his manager. Hoffner recalls that after he struck up a phone friendship with Leighton, Leighton sent Ondar and Pena to perform in Nashville during Ondar's next U.S. trip, in 1995. While there, Hoffner recorded Ondar's vocals, and in his studio electronically created a dance tune around them. He later played this for Norman, who was, coincidentally, another Feynman fan eager to work with Ondar. That tune, "Tuva Groove," is now the lead track on "Back TUVA Future" and is based on an ancient Tuvan folk song. As Norman notes, though, Ondar's lyrics for it relate to Feynman, whom Ondar knew about and whose chants and hand drums, via 20-year-old recordings made with Leighton, were slowed slightly and bridged into the track via Hoffner's specially composed chord structures. "Richard Feynman discovered Tuva, not only for America but for the whole world," says Ondar, by way of a translator. `And Friends of Tuva put his dreams into reality. All Tuvan people are grateful for that." Feynman, in fact, had dreamed of going to Tuva for the last decade of his life, but researching the Challenger explosion and cancer got in the way. "It's like he finally got to go to Tuva and play with the Tuvans," says Hoffner of Feynman's posthumous contributions to "Tuva Groove" and several other "Back TUVA Future" tracks. Ondar returned to Nashville in June 1997, and Hoffner again sampled his traditional vocals and subject matter, then built album tracks around them- always minding the idiosyncrasies of throat-singing and Ondar's preferred keys of "between D and E-flat" and "just south of G-flat." Norman then called in guest musicians, including American Indian singer Bill Miller, who recorded "Two Lands, One Tribe" with Ondar. The song is based on an ancient Tuvan melody and American Indian chants and features Miller playing woodland flute. "It's believed Tuva may have been where Native American tribes passed through from Siberia to North America," says Leighton. "At least there are cultural similarities in the beating of large drums and shaman chants- and the idea that everything has a spirit." Norman notes, too, that since the project was to meld Tuvan traditional music with American sounds, bluegrass was an obvious genre of choice-, hence the presence of Scruggs and mandolinist Sam Bush on the ancient Tuvan folk song "Good Horses." Nelson's participation came about when the producers thought of his interest in cowboys and the plight of the American farmer. "Tuva's land has been divided, and the Soviet farm collectives there were disastrous," says Norman. "So there was the farming connection [with Nelson], and the Tuvan people have been horsemen for 2,000 years." Nelson recites the English lyrics of "Where Has My Country Gone?," a lament about the effects of collectivized farms. But there is also a rap tune on "Back Tuva Future"- "Kargyraa Rap," which alternates Ondar's Tuvan tongue-twisters with Feynman's storytelling- prompting Norman to report his marketing department's initial dismay with the project. "There's bluegrass one minute, disco the next, so from a marketing perspective it's a difficult thing," says Norman. "So the focus is on the singer and his art form of throat-singing and all that can be done with it in the context of American music." Consequently, there will be a dance mix for "Tuva Groove" and possibly "Kargyaa Rap," designed to generate club play. Chris Palmer, VP of progressive music for Warner Bros. Nashville, acknowledges that the album "won't be an easy one to work," but says that the presence of Feynman, along with the stellar guest musicians, ensures at least "a worthwhile media story." The label also is targeting eclectic noncommercial radio. "We think stations like WXPN in Philadelphia, KCRW in Los Angeles, and KERA in Dallas can play tracks like `Good Horses,' `Where Has My Country Gone?,' and even `Tuva Groove,"' says Palmer. Indeed, Bruce Warren, PD of WXPN and producer of its "World Cafe" syndicated show, describes "Tuva Groove" as "Tuvan techno." "It's an exquisitely produced album that will surprise a lot of people who may not be familiar with this kind of music," adds Warren. Palmer expects to work both major retail accounts and the smaller ones that make up the Coalition of Independent Music Stores. Randi Mayrent, world music buyer for the Borders chain, says that the album is "by far the most accessible that I've heard in this genre" but questions whether it can reach a mainstream audience. That question may have been answered, however; in June 1997. Ondar, who was in Nashville recording vocals for the album, visited the Grand Ole Opry and performed the opening of "Two Lands, One Tribe" followed by the medley of throat-singing styles that he recorded on Ellipsis Arts' 1996 CD/book "Deep In The Heart Of Tuva- Cowboy Music From The Wild East." Norman recalls Ondar's emergence on the Opry stage in full traditional Tuvan regalia and the audience's rapt attention: `A lot of people thought it was bizarre, but I thought it made sense because Ondar's just singing country music from another country about the same things: love of the land, sweethearts, and one of his favorite subjects is horses, so it's both cowboys and Indians, with a nomadic lifestyle similar to Native Americans." "It's the same as Tuvan music," says Ondar of American country music, "and a special experience for any musician to perform at the Opry with the legends of country music."