09-05-24 Today on Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #587 we present an hour of visionary acoustic improvisation music featuring the Gaea Star Band with Mariam Massaro on vocals, acoustic guitar, ukulele, mandolin, Native flute and shruti box, Bob Sherwood on piano and drums and Ludimirra Ozdemir on vocals and Saz. Recorded live at Singing Bridge Studio in Worthington, Massachusetts, today’s dynamic show begins with the driving, syncopated “Know Yourself”, a varied groove with a fine vocal from Mariam. “Alive In The Beauty” is another driving, swinging piece that finds a powerful confluence between western and eastern modalities and “Find Your Rhythm” features dynamic saz figurations decorated with soaring Native flute from Mariam and driving, unrelenting drums rhythms from Bob. “Tall Trees” is a gorgeous, languid, reverent tone poem built around Bob’s modernist, minimalist piano work that ascribes interesting variations to Mariam’s fine vocal and lyrical Native flute and “I Found You” is a fantastical, Dyonisian celebration with Mariam’s mystical lyric, circling, diving Native flute, Ludimirra’s winding string work and Bob’s driving, surprising hand drum grooves. “Tall Trees” is a gorgeous, minimalist folk song with a pretty, repetitive harmonic framework set up by Mariam’s chiming mandolin and Bob’s stately piano that is repeatedly, seductively pulled into the minor with Ludimirra’s eastern modes on the saz. “I Found You” is a triumphantly successful hybrid of western 12 tone modes and eastern modal drone driven by Ludimirra’s questing, questioning Saz with Gershwinesque piano comments from Bob supporting a powerful, unwinding lyric from Mariam. One of today’s standouts is Mariam’s “Calling Us Home” from the “Release” album, presented powerfully and imaginatively by the band and supporting a fine vocal from Mariam. We conclude today’s show with a languid, rich coda of “Calling Us Home” that showcases beautiful Native flute from Mariam and virtuosically rendered Saz from Ludimirra.
Learn more about Mariam here: http://www.mariammassaro.com
