Uniting Navajo traditional songs with the dynamic currents of contemporary jazz and jazz improvisation, the trumpet master weaves a vibrant tapestry of sound.

photo by Maurice Johnson

“There is more to music than notes,” says Diné (Navajo) trumpeter, composer, arranger, and contemporary Native American musician Delbert Anderson. “It comes from inside, not from sheet music.”

Anderson’s own music can be described as an energetic fusion of jazz, funk, and hip-hop expressed through an Indigenous perspective. Traditional Diné soundscapes, world-music aesthetics, and a where-tradition-meets-the-sky approach to composing are combined to produce music that reintroduces ancient Navajo songs of healing, courtship, and love—and deliver them in a new way. His sound is grounded in Diné worldviews—particularly, the principles of Hózhó, which translates to “balance and beauty,” and emphasizes the importance of living in harmony with ourselves and others, nature, and the universe—and at the same time, it is carried forward by the ever-evolving canon of contemporary music.

Following ancient Diné clan lineage, Anderson, 38, is Bit’ahnii (“Under His Cover”) and born for Tl’aashchi’i (“Red Bottom People”). Born on the Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico, and raised in nearby Farmington, he grew up hearing the traditional music of the Diné drum circle, where improvisation is fundamental to the collective creation. His interest in contemporary music also began at an early age: Anderson recalls a particular school assembly where a group of musicians demonstrated a variety of instruments and techniques, including improv. To illustrate the concept that music is innate, the last performer paused briefly, mid-song, turned his music stand toward the audience, closed his eyes, and finished playing the piece. From that moment, young Anderson “was hooked,” he tells me.

Delbert was a tremendous contributor to all our ensembles… If trumpet was required, people wanted Delbert to be involved.”

“I knew the very first time I heard [Delbert] play that there was something special with his approach and the love he showed for music, specifically jazz,” says Dr. Chris Beaty, who was instrumental in recruiting Anderson to Eastern New Mexico University (ENMU) on a full scholarship, after hearing him compete at the San Juan College Jazz Festival in Farmington. Anderson studied music education and trumpet performance at ENMU, where Dr. Beaty (now Professor of Music at Texas A&M University-Commerce), encouraged and fine-tuned his gift for improvisation.

“When he got to Eastern as a freshman, I wanted him to play in the large jazz ensemble, but also the smaller jazz combo… I knew it would give him more opportunities to improvise, and to learn the vocabulary and styles of jazz and jazz improv,” says Dr. Beaty. He introduced Anderson to standard jazz scales, models, and patterns to help build his improvisational language, and directed listening assignments toward famous jazz trumpet players throughout history “to try to transcribe, absorb, and emulate their styles and solos.”

Dustin Seifert, Chair of the Department of Music and Director of Bands at ENMU, also recognized Anderson’s talent early on. “Delbert was a tremendous contributor to all our ensembles,” says Seifert. “If trumpet was required, people wanted Delbert to be involved.”

Today, Anderson performs with The Delbert Anderson Quartet, which includes funk/fusion drummer Khalill Brown (Blackfeet/Cherokee); classically trained keyboardist Robert Muller; and bassist Evan Suiter, whose repertoire includes jazz, country, Latin funk, classical, rock, and pop.

“While Delbert’s obvious talent [has] led him to international fame,” continues Seifert, it has “simultaneously exposed the rich traditions and contributions of the [Diné] musicians from which he descended.”

Some of Anderson’s dynamic musical mélange is showcased in pieces like “Where’s the Native?” and “Groove Warrior,” (which you can play below), the latter leading with a slow, commanding roll of powerful, heartbeat-spaced drumbeats reminiscent of the Diné drum circle, before taking flight into an airstream of chords and notes that leaves the bumblebee in search of a new route:

He has inspired countless young Indigenous artists to connect with their cultural identity through music.”

Married since 2013 and a father of five, Anderson is also committed to building the strength of Native communities, primarily through his work as a music educator, mentor, and community leader. “[Delbert] has inspired countless young Indigenous artists to connect with their cultural identity through music,” notes his manager, Tim Wilson. Many of his compositions evoke the high desert landscape of Navajo Country: an approaching thunderstorm; wind-carved mesas and buttes that rise and fall from the land; distant calls of eagles and red-tailed hawks against an ever-reaching horizon.

Still other musical works reflect the responsibility of Indigenous artists to tell the hard, historical truths of our past, as Anderson does in his performance piece, “The Long Walk: 1,674 Days.” This 50-note composition commemorates a dark chapter in American history, and pays homage to the artist’s Navajo ancestors—10,000 of whom were forced from their land in western New Mexico Territory (modern-day Arizona) by the U.S. Army, and marched at gunpoint to the Bosque Redondo Reservation in Fort Sumner, New Mexico—a distance of several hundred miles. Thousands of Diné perished from starvation, disease, and violence on this tenuous journey, which took place between 1863 and 1866. Those who survived were not allowed to return to their homeland for several years.

Anderson’s own “Long Walk” began when he played the first note on November 1, 2023 [which you can hear in the YouTube clip at the end of this story]. The song will continue to unfold over a span of 1,674 days, representing The Long Walk his ancestors endured from the first surrenders in the winter of 1863, to the signing of the Treaty of Bosque Redondo (also known as the Navajo Treaty of 1868, or the Treaty of Fort Sumner) on June 1, 1868.

Like the Diné worldview, the passage of time in Anderson’s composition is neither linear nor cyclical, but fluid: The past, present, and future are intertwined and exist in unison. The final note will sound on June 1, 2028.

I feel this is where we are headed in music—it will become more of an all-world, all-encompassing force as technology advances, information is transferred more easily, and cultures continue to mix.”

Anderson walks in the footsteps of trumpet heavyweights like Don Cherry (Choctaw) and Miles Davis (Cherokee), and alongside other musicians and composers with Native American heritage—Big Chief Russel Moore (Pima), Louis Ballard (Quapaw), Jim Pepper (Kaw/Muskogee), and, more recently, Joy Harjo (Muskogee), among others—whose work incorporates Indigenous harmonies, rhythms, and lyrics that have expanded the parameters of the jazz genre over the past hundred years or so.

But he is also traversing entirely new creative terrain. His cross-cultural recording collaboration, “D’DAT Kindred Spirits: A Navajo-South African Story,” featuring Nelisewe “Neli” Mtsweni (Ndebele/Nguni), aka the Songbird, on vocals in “Losing My Mind,” “Grandma’s Song,” which was written by D’DAT collaborator Alex Rose Holiday (Diné), and other tracks, represents a first in music history.

Produced during the 2022 World of Music, Arts, and Dance Festival (WOMAD), South African Safari, in Johannesburg and Soweto, South Africa, this recording marks the first time Diné song and music were ever performed on the African continent. It honors the matriarchs of both the Diné and Zulu tribes, and marks a coming together of Indigenous creative perspectives bridging 10,000 miles.

“When you begin to combine music genres as well as cultures, you bring more ethnic groups into the fold,” says Dr. Beaty. “I feel this is where we are headed in music—it will become more of an all-world, all-encompassing force as technology advances, information is transferred more easily, and cultures continue to mix. People like Delbert are leaders [on] these pathways of ‘new’ music.”

“Community, respect, and collaboration” are the foundational principles of music and “parallel across all cultures,” concludes Anderson.

“Through music, I can say where I came from, where the music comes from, and bring awareness about the culture I come from. We can heal from music—it’s a way to become a better person in the world.”