NEW YORK – Pamyua, the Alaskan Native group with roots ranging from Inuit to reggae, is making a habit of stealing the show at high visibility events.
After starring as a last-minute replacement at the 2001 Native American Music Awards in Albuquerque, N.M., the group (pronounced “Bam-you a) wowed an audience of music industry sophisticates at a roots music tribute on the eve of the Grammy awards in New York City in February.
Featuring the highly attractive vocals of lead singer Karina Moeller, Inuk from West Greenland, the group mixes indigenous sounds and dance steps with blues-influenced original songs and, astonishingly, a laid-back reggae beat.
“I’m a big, big, big fan of Bob Marley,” said Pamyua member Ossie Kairaiuk.
Ossie and brothers Stephen and Phillip Blanchett, Yup’ik Indians from Alaska, founded the group in Anchorage, their home base. They linked up with Karina, said Ossie, when troubles with a helicopter flight from her Greenland hometown kept her back-up band from joining her in an Anchorage performance.
In spite of the isolation of Karina’s home, she projects a mix of fashion-model glamour with her indigenous roots, a prime example of the phenomenal current outpouring of sophisticated Inuit talent. “She’s from the Nu’uk posse,” said Ossie.
Karina and Stephen are now married, with an infant daughter Ivalu who watched their high-energy performance stoically from the arms of a front-row spectator.
Along with the rock and reggae, and Ossie’s soulful lyrics, Karina interjected a rendition of Inuit bird calls and danced a rock imitation of bird flight, with arms sinuously simulating a gliding wing span.
Pamyua is already one of the biggest acts in Alaska, but it burst on the Native music scene in the lower 48 at the Nammys two years ago in Albuquerque. The group made the long trip as nominees, seeking to promote their self-produced album “Apallut (Verses).” Nammy Executive Director Donald Kelly helped them find a gig in the sponsoring Native casino. The performance was a smash, even though Ossie remembers the challenge of playing over the “ka-ching” of the slot machines.
When a featured performer cancelled at the last minute in the next night’s Nammy show, Kelly asked Pamyua to go on instead. They became one of the evening’s biggest hits.
Their unheralded turn at this year’s Grammy tribute also stole the show. Passersby stopped and gaped through the wrap-around windows of The Studio at 45th Street. (The Grammy-eve show to honor nominees in the Native American Album category and indigenous musicians in general was sponsored by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York and Four Directions Media, an Oneida Nation enterprise.
Pamyua is promoting a new live CD “Caught in the Act,” available from its Web site www.pamyua.com. They are ambitiously seeking a wider audience but are still a little surprised at their success.
Ossie recalls walking down Broadway the day before their performance, taking in the new sights with a friend, when they passed a large window opening on a performance space and an empty stage. “Someday we’re going to play in a place like that,” he recalls saying. Then he looked at the marquee and saw the name “The Studio.”
“Hey, we’re playing there tomorrow night,” he exclaimed.
