Redbelly Music: BIO/PRESS/VIDEO

Legends of Time CD Review: Author John Sarantos

Over the past ten years I have listened to many musicians play the Native American Flute and the Native Styled Flute. Few have played with the heart-felt compassion of David Martinka. Each of his nineteen songs is full of a soulful passion that takes its' listeners on an endless journey through times past and times not yet experienced. David presents his flute songs on Legends of Time with total solo flute with the exception of a few seconds of thunder special effects in Redbelly Lives III. It sounds funny for me to say that Legends of Time is refreshing in that it is a total solo flute recording because it really is returning back to what most flute music originally was, solo playing without special sound effects. David truly has captured time in Legends of Time. David told me that his songs are inspired by nature and his personal encounters as he journeys through life. He said some of the songs on the Cd were also inspired by the stories his mother told him of relatives that had past on. He stated that his songs come from his inner heart, not from composing with pen and paper or working out melodies on the piano. He plays his flutes and the songs come forth. Perhaps that is why I feel his playing style echoes those of the early traditional flute players like Doc Tat Nevaquaya, R. Carlos Nakai, Kevin Locke, Brian Akpa, and Fernando Cellicion. David Martinka also created two of the flutes that he uses on the Cd which is another reason I feel his songs touch one's inner spirit. He confided in me that he really does not spend endless time trying to tune his personal flutes in perfect pitch. Yet, the sound of his flutes on DMFLUTE and One Day will touch the very inner primitive soul of its listeners. There is something very magical and ancient sounding about David's flutes and his flute playing style. He also credits flute makers Billy Crowbeak, Dan Haviland, Raymond Redfeather, Scott Loomis and Colyn Petersen whose flutes he also uses on the Cd. Charles Littleleaf once told me that each flute song should tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. I feel David has naturally mastered this idea with each of his songs. Like the art work of his Cd cover by Eileen Whitacre, each of Martinka songs will paint many different images in the listener's mind as David creates a simple, yet rich texture of sounds that will also trigger many inner feelings for the listener. He uses a vast amount of embellishments; however these embellishments flow so freely throughout his songs that they sound fresh and original. Many of them take on gentle animal qualities as if David is setting free the voices that the animals first gifted the first branch to become a flute. Some of my favorites are DMFLUTE, Legends of Time, Fire Fly, and Morning of the Bluebird, Where the Heart Goes, and White Buffalo. David is also not afraid to experiment with reverb and delays to help create some haunting and soulful effects. He told me that, "Here we have the simplest of musical instruments intertwined with the most modern technical effects." Legends of Time demonstrates that David is also a master of blending these two components together in such songs as Air, Fire, Water; Hollow Bones, Land That Time Forgot, Legend of Time, Morning of the Bluebird, Redbelly Lives III, She Is the Rainbow, and Stands Alone II. I asked David how he started his flute journey. He replied, "I was searching for this bird that was making a call almost every time I was in the forest. On the first time I was playing the flute in the forest, the bird landed on a branch in front of me. This flute was gifted to me by my mom when I graduated from college and so I think my journey began. That bird was the Red-bellied Woodpecker." Legends of Time is an excellent choice for those listeners who want a totally solo flute Cd. It is a very relaxing, peaceful, spiritually tranquil and at the same time an emotionally uplifting Cd. I am thankful to David Martinka for not only creating his beautiful music, but also for sharing it with all of us.

 

 

This was great fun for us. We shot this video after using White Tail Deer calls and Rattle Bag by Primos Hunting Calls. The deer was 17yrds and the time was 1:30pm.