R. Carlos Nakai

Raymond Carlos Nakai is a Native American flutist of Navajo and Ute heritage. Nakai played brass instruments in high school and college, and auditioned for the Armed Forces School of Music after a two-year period in the United States Navy. He began playing a traditional Native American cedar flute after an accident left him unable to play the trumpet. Largely self-taught, he released his first album Changes in 1983, and afterward signed a contract with Canyon Records, who produced more than thirty of his albums in subsequent years. His music prominently features original compositions for the flute inspired by traditional Native American melodies. Nakai has collaborated with musicians William Eaton, Peter Kater, Philip Glass, Nawang Khechog, Paul Horn, and Keola Beamer. He has received 11 Grammy Award nominations for his albums.

16 April 1946

Born on the same birth date (16 April 1946): Ernst Bakker • Johnnie Lewis • Margot Adler

Born on the same birth day (16 April): Akon • Boris Diaw • Fred Root • Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg • Howard Mumford Jones • Ioan Mihai Cochinescu • Paweł Kieszek • Rich Rollins • Sadie Sink • Seigo Yamamoto • Selena • Seth Bingham

Born in the same month (April 1946): Adolf Winkelmann (film director) • Alberto Quintano • Bob Harris (radio presenter) • David Angell • Doug Christie (lawyer) • Georgi Markov (wrestler) • Hayley Mills • Jane Asher • John Dunsworth • Johnnie Lewis • Julio Ángel Fernández • Kurt Winter • Nicholas Stern, Baron Stern of Brentford • Pete Rouse • Peter Sutherland • Rodney Frelinghuysen • Sandro Chia • Steven L. Bennett • Tim Curry • Tim Thomerson • Vladimir Zhirinovsky