Pura Fé
Encyclopedia
Pura Fé is a singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

, poet
Poet
A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

, musician, artist and social activist. She founded the first native women's a cappella
A cappella
A cappella music is specifically solo or group singing without instrumental sound, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. It is the opposite of cantata, which is accompanied singing. A cappella was originally intended to differentiate between Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato...

 trio, Ulali
Ulali
Ulali, founded in 1987, was the first Native American women's a cappella group to create their own sound from strong traditional roots and personal contemporary styles. They created a new genre of Native American music and inspired the creation of other Native women's groups...

, and created a style and genre that blends traditional Native American music with contemporary musical styles. She currently resides in Durham, North Carolina, and performs internationally with the Pura Fé Trio.

Personal life

She was born in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 and raised by her mother and family of female singers who are descendants of the Tuscarora Nation that had migrated from North Carolina to New York in the early 1900’s.

Her mother, Nanice Lund, whose parents are mixed-blood Indian, was a classically trained opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 singer who toured with Duke Ellington and his Sacred Concert Series. Her father, the late Juan Antonio Crescioni-Collazo was from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, of Taino Indian
Taíno people
The Taínos were pre-Columbian inhabitants of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is thought that the seafaring Taínos are relatives of the Arawak people of South America...

 and Corsican ancestry
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico came about as a result of various economic and political changes in the mid-19th century Europe; among those factors were the social-economic changes which came about in Europe as a result of the Second Industrial Revolution, political discontent and widespread...

. He named her Pura Fé which translates from Spanish as "Pure Faith".

Training

As an adolescent, Pura Fé studied and performed with the American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre , based in New York City, was one of the foremost ballet companies of the 20th century. It continues as a leading dance company in the world today...

 company, briefly trained at Martha Graham
Martha Graham
Martha Graham was an American modern dancer and choreographer whose influence on dance has been compared with the influence Picasso had on modern visual arts, Stravinsky had on music, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.She danced and choreographed for over seventy years...

 school and performed in several Broadway musicals, including The Me Nobody Knows
The Me Nobody Knows
The Me Nobody Knows is a musical with music by Gary William Friedman and lyrics by Will Holt. It debuted off-Broadway in 1970 and then transferred to Broadway. It received the Obie Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical...

, Ari, and Via Galactica
Via Galactica
Via Galactica is a rock musical with a book by Christopher Gore and Judith Ross, lyrics by Gore, and music by Galt MacDermot. It marked the Broadway debut of actor Mark Baker....

. She also sang with the Mercer Ellington
Mercer Ellington
Mercer Kennedy Ellington was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger.Ellington was born in Washington, DC, the son of famous composer, pianist, and bandleader Duke Ellington...

 Orchestra.

She attended a small professional school, Lincoln Square Academy, along with classmates Laurence Fishburne
Laurence Fishburne
Laurence John Fishburne III is an American film and stage actor, playwright, director, and producer. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Morpheus in the Matrix science fiction film trilogy, as Cowboy Curtis on the 1980's television show Pee-wee's Playhouse, and as singer-musician Ike Turner...

, Ben Stiller
Ben Stiller
Benjamin Edward "Ben" Stiller is an American comedian, actor, writer, film director, and producer. He is the son of veteran comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara....

, Robbie Benson
Robbie Benson
Robbie Benson, born in Athlone, Ireland is an association footballer who plays for UCD. He plays in the position of Midfield. He can also play as a forward when needed...

, Stephanie Mills
Stephanie Mills
Stephanie Dorthea Mills is an American R&B and soul singer, and a former Broadway star.-Career:Mills began her career appearing in her first play at the age of nine. Two years later, Mills won Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater a record six times...

, Gion Carlo Esposito, Pia Zadora
Pia Zadora
Pia Zadora is an American actress and singer. After working as a child actress on Broadway, in regional theater, and in the film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians , she came to national attention in 1981 when, following her starring role in the highly criticized Butterfly, she won a Golden Globe...

, Scott Jacoby
Scott Jacoby
Scott Jacoby is an American actor. He won an Emmy Award for his role in the 1972 television film That Certain Summer. He is also famous for playing the lead role in the made for TV film Bad Ronald 1974....

 and her childhood friend, Irene Cara
Irene Cara
Irene Cara is an American singer and actress. Cara won an Academy Award in 1984 in the category of Best Original Song for co-writing "Flashdance... What a Feeling." She is also known for her recording of the song "Fame", and she also starred in the 1980 film Fame.She married Hollywood stuntman...

. In the late 1970s, she worked as a waitress at the famous club Max's Kansas City
Max's Kansas City
Max's Kansas City was a nightclub and restaurant at 213 Park Avenue South, in New York City, which was a gathering spot for musicians, poets, artists and politicians in the 1960s and 1970s.-Origin of name:...

 in New York. It was soon after that she began singing in bands and began working as a studio singer. She recorded jingles, commercials, backup vocals and lead on demos and recordings such as, Good Enough written by James McBride
James McBride (writer)
James McBride is an American writer and musician whose compositions have been recorded by a variety of other musicians.-Early life:McBride's father, the late Rev. Andrew D...

, and recorded soon after by Anita Baker
Anita Baker
Anita Baker is an American R&B/soul jazz singer-songwriter. To date, Baker has won eight Grammy Awards, and has four platinum albums and two gold albums to her credit....

.

Career

In 1994, she was nominated and performed at the Juno Awards for Best Global Recording, for the album Condor Meets the Eagle by Kanatan Aski with Pura Fé. She released the CD, Mahk Jchi with Ulali on Corn, Beans and Squash Music and she appeared with Ulali on Robbie Robertson’s
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...

 Music for the Native Americans
Music for The Native Americans
Music for The Native Americans is a 1994 album by Robbie Robertson, compiling music written by Robertson and other colleagues for the television documentary film The Native Americans....

.

In 1995, she released her first solo album, the R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 inspired, Caution to the Wind, written and produced by James McBride
James McBride (writer)
James McBride is an American writer and musician whose compositions have been recorded by a variety of other musicians.-Early life:McBride's father, the late Rev. Andrew D...

 on Shanachie Records
Shanachie Records
Shanachie Records was founded in 1976 by Richard Nevins and Dan Collins. According to Harvey Pekar , it is one of the largest independent record labels in the world, and is currently distributed by E1 Music. Starting as a label that specialized in fiddle music, they began releasing work by Celtic...

. She also appeared on Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show with Ulali and Robbie Robertson, debuting the Ulali song Mahk Jchi (Heartbeat Drum Song), which went platinum in Italy.

She has appeared on many recordings and film soundtracks, including the Indigo Girls
Indigo Girls
The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...

, Shaming of the Sun
Shaming of the Sun
Shaming of the Sun is the sixth studio album by the Indigo Girls, released in 1997.-Track listing:#"Shame on You" – 4:04#"Get Out the Map" – 3:25#"Shed Your Skin" – 4:10#"It's Alright" – 3:05...

, Miramax’s Smoke Signals
Smoke Signals (film)
Smoke Signals is an independent film directed and co-produced by Chris Eyre and with a screenplay by Sherman Alexie, based on the short story "This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona" from his book Lone Ranger and Tonto: Fistfight in Heaven. It won several awards and accolades, and was...

 soundtrack, the Turner Documentary series The Native Americans, 1 Giant Leap
1 Giant Leap
1 Giant Leap is a concept band and media project consisting of the two principal artists, Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman.-Information:...

 DVD, The World Festival of Sacred Music
World Sacred Music Festival
The World Festival of Sacred Music brings together performers from every corner of our planet for a week of artistic show in Fes, Morocco's ancient holy city. It was first held in 1994.-Los Angeles:...

  for the Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...

, Showtime's The L-Word, and "A Thousand Roads" soundtrack.

Pura Fé moved to North Carolina in the 1990s to be closer to her Tuscarora
Tuscarora (tribe)
The Tuscarora are a Native American people of the Iroquoian-language family, with members in New York, Canada, and North Carolina...

 roots and communities. She volunteered to teach Native youth in the rural Indian communities of Robeson County, North Carolina
Robeson County, North Carolina
Robeson County is a county in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of 2010 it had a population of 134,168. Since then, it has been one of the 10% of United States counties that were majority-minority; its combined population of American Indian, African American and Latino residents comprise over...

. She won the Community Spirit Award from the First Peoples Fund of the Tides Foundation, for her volunteered contributions and later won their fellowship award.

In Indian Country, Pura Fé is a Smoke Dance Champion and Pow-wow "Fancy Dancer".

After hearing guitarist Kelly Joe Phelps
Kelly Joe Phelps
Kelly Joe Phelps is an American musician and songwriter. His music has been characterized as a mixture of delta blues and jazz.-Career:...

 perform, Pura Fé was inspired to pick up the acoustic lap slide guitar
Lap slide guitar
A lap slide guitar is a general term often used to describe any guitar played on the lap with a slide or steel.Lap slide guitars are generally one of three types:* Acoustic resonator guitars* Electric lap steels...

, a dying tradition and style that was once strong in eastern N.C.
Eastern North Carolina
Eastern North Carolina is the region encompassing the eastern tier of North Carolina. It is known geographically as the state's Coastal Plain region. Primary subregions of Eastern North Carolina include the Fayetteville Metropolitan Area, the Lower Cape Fear , the Sandhills, the Inner Banks and...

 native communities. After three months of teaching herself her own songs on guitar, she recorded her 2nd solo album, Follow Your Heart's Desire, released on the Music Maker
Music Maker (label)
Music Maker Relief Foundation is an American non-profit record label, based in Hillsborough, North Carolina. Music Maker Relief Foundation was founded in 1994 by Tim and Denise Duffy to "help the true pioneers and forgotten heroes of Southern music gain recognition and meet their day to day needs...

 label. The album was a collection of anthems, stories, protest songs and Iroquois
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

/Tutelo
Tutelo
The Tutelo were Native people living above the Fall Line in present-day Virginia and West Virginia, speaking a Siouan dialect of the Tutelo language thought to be similar to that of their neighbors, the Monacan and Manahoac nations...

 Social Dance
Social dance
Social dance is a major category or classification of danceforms or dance styles, where sociability and socializing are the primary focuses of the dancing...

 songs, that all state the influence of Indigenous music
Indigenous music
Indigenous music is a term for the traditional music of the indigenous peoples of the world, that is, the music of an "original" ethnic group that inhabits any geographic region alongside more recent immigrants who may be greater in number...

 on Blues music
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 and history.

One year later, she opened for Neil Young
Neil Young
Neil Percival Young, OC, OM is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of his generation...

 in Berkley, CA., singing Rise Up Tuscarora Nation and Find the Cost of Freedom. As a solo artist, she has also opened up for Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...

, Taj Mahal
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal is a white Marble mausoleum located in Agra, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal...

, Al Jarreau
Al Jarreau
Alwin "Al" Lopez Jarreau is a seven-time Grammy Award winning jazz singer.- Background :Jarreau was born in Milwaukee, the fifth of six children. His web site refers to Reservoir, Inc., the name of the street where he lived. His father was a Seventh-Day Adventist Church minister and singer, and...

 and George Duke
George Duke
George Duke is a multi-faceted American musician, known as a keyboard pioneer, composer, singer and producer in both jazz and popular mainstream musical genres. He has worked with numerous acclaimed artists as arranger, music director, writer and co-writer, record producer and professor of music...

.

Pura Fé won a NAMMY (Native American Music Award) for Best Female Artist in 2006. She also won a L'Académie Charles Cros
L'Académie Charles Cros
The Académie Charles-Cros, is an organization in France that acts as an intermediary between government cultural policy makers and professionals in music and the recording industry....

 Award (France's Grammy) for Best World Album.

Pura Fé's third album, Hold The Rain, was released in 2007 with Seattle-based guitarist, Danny Godinez. This album includes an upbeat cover of the song Summertime
Summertime (song)
"Summertime" is an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The lyrics are by DuBose Heyward, the author of the novel Porgy on which the opera was based, although the song is also co-credited to Ira Gershwin by ASCAP....

. Hold the Rain was released in the states through the Music Maker Relief Foundation blues label.

In late 2009, she released her 4th album, Full Moon Rising for both Music Maker and Dixie Frog and began an extensive tour throughout Europe with her new CD, which features several artists including members of the Carolina Chocolate Drops
Carolina Chocolate Drops
The Carolina Chocolate Drops is an old-time string band from Durham, North Carolina, United States. Its 2010 album, Genuine Negro Jig, won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album at the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, and was number 9 in FRoots magazine's top 10 albums of 2010.The Drops are one...

, Danny Godinez, Cary Morin, and others.

She currently tours with her band, the Pura Fe' Trio, which consists of Cary Morin on lead guitar and Pete Knudson on percussion. Her 5th solo album, a live double CD, was released in the spring of 2011: "A Blues Night in North Carolina."

Albums

  • Pura Fe' Trio Live!: A Blues Night in North Carolina (Dixie Frog Records; Music Maker, 2011)
  • Full Moon Rising (Dixie Frog Records 2009)
  • Hold The Rain (Dixie Frog Records; Music Maker 2007)
  • Tuscarora Nation Blues (Dixie Frog Records, 2006) (European release of "Follow Your Hearts Desire" with two extra songs.)
  • Follow Your Heart's Desire (Music Maker, 2004)
  • Mahk Jchi with Ulali
    Ulali
    Ulali, founded in 1987, was the first Native American women's a cappella group to create their own sound from strong traditional roots and personal contemporary styles. They created a new genre of Native American music and inspired the creation of other Native women's groups...

    (Thrush Records, 1997)
  • Caution to the Wind (Shanachie Records, 1995)

Side projects, Contributions & Collaborations

  • Music Maker Revue - Live in Europe (Dixiefrog, 2011)
  • Deer Clan Singers - Deers R Us (Music Maker, 2011)
  • Native American Calling-Music from Indian Country Compilation
    Compilation album
    A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

     (Trikont, 2010)
  • Indian Rezervation Blues Compilation
    Compilation album
    A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

     (Dixie Frog, 2009)
  • Dans La Tête D'Un Homme Alexandre Kinn (Universal, 2008)
  • Sisters of the South Compilation (Dixie Frog, 2008) Contributor
  • Drink House to Church House, Volume 2 DVD/CD set (Music Maker, 2007) Contributor
  • Blues Sweet Blues Compilation (Music Maker, 2007) Contributor
  • Only Breath Jami Sieber (Out Front Music, 2007) Contributor
  • The Last & Lost Blues Survivors Compilation (Dixie Frog, 2005) Contributor
  • Speaking the Mamma Tongue John McDowell
    John McDowell
    John Henry McDowell is a South African philosopher, formerly a fellow of University College, Oxford and now University Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Although he has written extensively on metaphysics, epistemology, ancient philosophy, and meta-ethics, McDowell's most influential work...

     (Raven, 2004) Lead vocals on two songs: "Face the Wind" & "Oma Wani Yea".
  • 1 Giant Leap
    1 Giant Leap
    1 Giant Leap is a concept band and media project consisting of the two principal artists, Jamie Catto and Duncan Bridgeman.-Information:...

     (Palm Pictures, 2002) Contributor
  • Without Reservations XIT
    XIT (band)
    XIT is a Native American rock band that released two albums in the 1970s on the Motown label, and regrouped in the 1990s as a new and different group under Tom Bee. They performed a 30th anniversary reunion concert and released a DVD, XIT: Without Reservation, in 2002.-History:XIT was originally...

     (Warrior, 2002) Guest appearance
  • The Ghosts of St. Augustine Tonemah (Red Sky, 2001) Collaboration
  • Always Be Jeffrey Gaines
    Jeffrey Gaines
    Jeffrey Gaines is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he was signed to the Chrysalis Records label in 1990 and released his debut album, Jeffrey Gaines, in 1992 ....

     (Artemis, 2001) Background vocals
  • World Festival of Sacred Music - the Americas, Los Angeles (Bindu Records, 2000) Contributor
  • Smoke Signals: Music from the Miramax Film Soundtrack (Tvt
    TVT
    TVT may mean:*TVT: Canine transmissible venereal tumour*TVT Records*TVT: The callsign of a TV station in Tasmania, Australia.*Televisheni ya Taifa: The state broadcaster of Tanzania.*Télévision Togolaise: The state broadcaster of Togo....

    , 1998) Contributor.
  • Weaving The Strands: Music By Contemporary Native American Women (Red Feather, 1998)
  • Shaming of the Sun
    Shaming of the Sun
    Shaming of the Sun is the sixth studio album by the Indigo Girls, released in 1997.-Track listing:#"Shame on You" – 4:04#"Get Out the Map" – 3:25#"Shed Your Skin" – 4:10#"It's Alright" – 3:05...

    , Indigo Girls
    Indigo Girls
    The Indigo Girls are an American folk rock music duo, consisting of Amy Ray and Emily Saliers. They met in elementary school and began performing together as high school students in Decatur, Georgia, part of the Atlanta metropolitan area...

     (Sony
    Sony
    , commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....

    , 1997)
  • Mirabal
    Mirabal
    The name Mirabal may refer to:* The Mirabal sisters, natives of the Dominican Republic who opposed the dictatorship of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo* Robert Mirabal, a Pueblo musician and Native American flute player* Jesús Mirabal, a former Cuban decathlete...

    , Robert Mirabal
    Robert Mirabal
    Robert Mirabal is a Pueblo musician and Native American flute player and maker from Taos Pueblo, New Mexico.His flutes are world renowned and have been displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of the American Indian...

     (Warner Bros.
    Warner Bros.
    Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

    , 1997)
  • Lessons from the Animal People (Yellow Moon Press, 1997)
  • Tribal Fires: Contemporary Native American Voices (Rhino, 1996) Contributor
  • Honor: A Benefit for the Honor the Earth Campaign (Daemon, 1996) Contributor
  • Tribal Voices: Songs from Native Americans (Earthbeat, 1996) Contributor
  • Legends Project: I am an Eagle (Curb Records
    Curb Records
    Curb Records is a record label started by Mike Curb originally as Sidewalk Records in 1963...

    , 1995)
  • Heartbeat: Voices of First Nations Women (Smithsonian/Folkways, 1995) Contributor
  • Music for the Native Americans
    Music for The Native Americans
    Music for The Native Americans is a 1994 album by Robbie Robertson, compiling music written by Robertson and other colleagues for the television documentary film The Native Americans....

     Robbie Robertson
    Robbie Robertson
    Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...

     (Capitol Records, 1994)
  • Condor Meets the Eagle with Kanatan Aski (Black Jaguar Productions, 1994)
  • Maggie's Dream
    Maggie's Dream
    Maggie's Dream was a alternative rock band formed by Dräco Rosa. The band’s stridency earned them a spot with Fishbone and Faith No More during their tours. Maggie's Dream was signed to Capitol Records and released only one album...

     (Capitol Records
    Capitol Records
    Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...

    , 1990) Vocals on "Between Fear & Desire"

External links

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