Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #290

01-04-18  Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #290 on a freezing late December day at Singing Brook Studio in Worthington, Massachusetts and features songs by Mariam Massaro and improvisations by the Gaea Star Band with special featured guests Dagen Julty on flute, Arol Hill on acoustic guitar and vocals, Jennifer Leight on violin and Bri and Wakinyan Elizabeth on vocals.  Today’s first song is the upbeat, jazzy, bright “Just Be Free” with Mariam Massaro on vocals and a driving rhythm section of Craig Harris on congas and Bob Sherwood on piano.  Flute from Dagen and violin improv from Jennifer make this a sprightly, lyrical excursion.  Next up guest vocalist guitarist Arol Hill unleashes the driving blues of “He Once Told Me” which dissolves pleasingly into Mariam’s “Once Again Tali Sin”, a mystical meditation featuring call-and-response flute and violin from Dagen and Jennifer.  “Little By Little” begins and ends as an attempt to build a composition from a single note and flourishes in a creative exercise at once lush, aching and minimal.  “May We All Feel Freedom” is gorgeous eastern European jazz featuring soaring, klezmeresque violin from Jennifer and an unfurling chordal journey from Bob.  Today we finish with the hard driving gypsy groove of “Into The Forest Of Ancient Ones” led by Mariam’s powerful acoustic guitar and mystical vocal.