Chamber Music America’s (CMA) Presenter Consortium for Jazz provides support to consortia of three U.S. presenters that collectively engage up to three professional U.S. jazz ensembles (consisting of 2-10 musicians each) to perform at each presenter’s venue.

We featured 3 presenters within the Navajo Nation:

1. Northwest New Mexico Arts Council in Farmington, NM
2. Cortez Cultural Center in Cortez, CO
3. gallupARTS in Gallup, NM

Our main goal was to share how Jazz (Black Liberation Music) was used to heal our mind, body and spirit to Indigenous Communities. We hope with these three videos we could share enough experiences and knowledge from artists, organizers and health professionals to help with problems on the Navajo Reservation. 

For our performers, we thought it was important to highlight a local component, an Indigenous female led band and a mainstream jazz group. These groups are:

1. D'DAT - Farmington Local Indigenous Band
2. Julia Keefe Quartet - Indigenous (Nez Perce) female led group
3. Brad Goode Quintet - Main stream jazz group featuring Ernie Watts

The Blue Desert Virtual Tour performance of D’DAT, Julia Keefe Quartet and the Brad Goode Quintet, presented in collaboration with Cortez Cultural Center, Northwest New Mexico Arts Council and gallupARTS is supported by Chamber Music America’s Presenter Consortium for Jazz Program, funded through the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.