Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #162

04-23-15  “Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #162 features Mariam Massaro and Bob Sherwood as well as the beautiful vocals of Sondra Lewis and Craig Harris’ rock steady congas.  We begin with the lovely, hopeful “So Much Love In This Beautiful World” before downshifting into the stately, minor-toned “Around The Circle Of Life”, a piece of slowly building intensity that is driven along by the mystical vocals of Mariam and Sondra to a place of frenetic Afro-Cuban improvisation.  Mariam moves into the center of the piece with skilful native flute work that is beautifully complemented by Craig’s driving conga work until a mystical denouement leads us into the break.  We return with the favorite perennial “Reborn” by Mariam, which the ensemble lifts to a new intensity before yielding to Mariam’s playful, ukelele-driven ragtime “Riding On The Stars”.  Bob takes over with an unusual, circular motif that sends the piece off with a series of mysterious harmonic reframing and an evocative downshift out of which we slowly build a stately take of Mariam’s “Restore” from 2014’s “Vision Quest” album.