Phoenix's cultural history reveals its rich musical identity

In Phoenix, Arizona, we tour the desert landscape, visit the Mecca of musical instruments, and learn all about the indigenous roots of this city known as the "Valley of the Sun."

To familiarise ourselves with the city's surroundings, we first head out for an ATV tour of the Sonoran Desert with Devin O'Bryan of local tour operator Stellar Adventures. Located about 45 minutes from downtown Phoenix and 30 minutes north of Scottsdale, it's very accessible.

"The entire area we explore is part of the Four Peaks Wilderness Recreation Area, with more than 800 linear miles of trails in this area of the desert alone. So it offers our tours the ability to hike a variety of trails. You have to imagine that a lot of these trails, many years ago, was all horse and wagon," Devin tells us.

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Whether it's in downtown Phoenix or in the Tempe area or Scottsdale. There's a club, there's a venue, there's every genre of music imaginable. That's why we visited the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM). With more than fifteen thousand pieces, it's a Mecca for music lovers.

"People come from all over the world. When they're discovering some of the natural landscapes they also have an opportunity to discover the musical landscape here at MIM," explains Richard D. Walter, curator of the Musical Instrument Museum.

Some of the instruments in the collection have been passed down from generation to generation and continue to represent community, family and heritage. To Richard, they mean more than the physical instrument. They mean people, they mean humanity.

To learn more about the music of Phoenix's indigenous communities, we visited the Heard Museum, a space dedicated to the advancement of American Indian