The last of the Buffalo Jump Records opening songs is a Prayer Song composed and performed by Perry Cheevers Toppah (Kiowa/Navajo) of Oklahoma. As of December 1st, 2020, we had only planned to share four songs as part of our social media launch. However, starting in the last November, the devastating effects of the pandemic began to circle closer to us, affecting even more and more artists and community members and our own staff and their families. During the last 6 weeks, the illness and passings of dear friends and family began to cascade heavily. Like many of us know too well, logging into Facebook or texting with connections has led to discovering that someone we love or know has become sick or has passed on. With that in mind, we requested our dear friend, acclaimed and respected singer Perry Cheevers Toppah to sing a song that would honor those who had passed away, those that were sick and all suffering from the pandemic. Cheevers immediately said he would compose one for the occasion, a deep honor for us. He explained that he had not been singing online during these months but felt this was the right occasion to do so. I have worked with Cheevers as a solo artist, as leader of the Thunder Hill drum group and as a member of the highly innovative unit of Smith, Toppah and Largo. He has fused his musical training in western choral music has been infused seamlessly into his deep knowledge of Southern Plains singing. He is a Grammy-nominee and has been inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. He has left and indelible mark on Indigenous music and is constantly striving to share the natural beauty of Native music with new audiences while maintaining his roots in his Kiowa and Navajo cultures.
As Cheevers prepared this song, he and many others were dealt an additional stunning blow with the passing of Charles “Neka” Logan, a drum brother and member of Thunder Hill. Having known and worked with Neka myself, I was also stunned. I called Cheevers and said it would be ok if he did not feel up to singing given this recent and tragic loss. Cheevers said that he wanted to still share the song and sent it to us less than 24 hour ago. In the spirit of giving names and faces to the pandemic instead of numbers, we asked those people in Buffalo Jump’s family of artists, staff and collaborators if we could share images of those who have passed on with this powerful song. These images represent the 2 million who have lost their lives.
They are:
Virgina Tsosie (1/28/1956-12/11/2020)
Geraldine Singer (7/21/67 - 11/3/2020)
Louis L. Marsden (7/20/29 - 12/11/2020) and Verna G. Marsden (7/28/35 - 12/15/20)
Geshe Thubten Yeshe (d.12/2020)
Lionel Wayne Frailey (12/10/37 - 11/22/20)
Pernell “Budge” Mahle (6/18/76 - 12/18/20)
John Gregory Green Sr. (3/12/43 - 12/31/20)
Daniel Summers (9/1/71 - 1/20/21)
Alice Arlene Brown (7/25/41 - 12/4/20) and George Brown (8/2/38 - 11/26/20)
Roger DeWayne Tofpi (11/4/52 - 1/4/21)
Charles “Neka” Logan (2/5/82 - 1/20/21)
We also remember Cheryl L McClellan, aunt of our longtime friend and artist Curtis Hamilton Young Bird
Recorded on January 21, 2020 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Thank you to Perry Cheevers Toppah for this powerful and healing song.
Please visit us at:
buffalojumprecords.com
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