Cikwes

Line-up:
Cikwes Fred Mack – Sax
Murray Pulver- Guitar
Steven Atkinson – Drums

Following Cikwes’s Juno nominated and award winning album, Kakîsimo (2023), arrives her newly released album, Nehiyaw Iskô (Cree Woman). Her new work combines the ancient art of chanting, hand drumming, the Cree language, blending it with jazz, reservation rock, and ancestral wailing on saxophone. This new set includes syllabic scatting, a genre unique to Cikwes that combines the Cree syllabics delivered in traditional jingle dress rythmn. Recently, Cikwes opened up for Aysanbee at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and delivered a moving performance with her new music, addressing intergenerational trauma and transforming it into healing through the power of music.

Cikwes’s shows have been described as mesmerizing and enchanting and her story telling is filled with warmth and laughter. Cikwes is a unique gem that sings in her Indigenous language and composes music through the ancient art of chanting, fusing it with jazz, soul and RnB. She refers to this genre as nehiyaw soul, a term coined by Cikwes.