Native American New Age

Native American new age is the contemplative instrumental music built on the Native American flute and related Indigenous sounds, brought to a wide audience in the 1980s by *R. Carlos Nakai*, a Navajo-Ute flutist whose recordings for #Canyon Records# reached gold sales. Cedar flutes, frame drums, rattles and nature field recordings are set in spacious synthesizer washes or left solo in echoing reverberation, in music intended for meditation, healing and quiet listening. Artists such as *Mary Youngblood*, the first woman to win a Grammy in the category, and *Robert Mirabal* balance tribal tradition with contemporary composition.