09-12-24 Gaea Star Crystal Radio Hour #588 is an hour of dynamic, visionary acoustic improvised music played by the Gaea Star Band with Mariam Massaro on vocals, Native flute, 4- and 8-string ukulele, shruti box, mandolin and dulcimer, Bob Sherwood on piano and Craig Harris on Native drum and congas and featuring today’s special guest, Turkish singer and folk musician Ludimirra Ozdemir on vocals and playing his richly resonant Saz, a stringed instrument similar to a guitar. Recorded live at Singing Brook Studio in Worthington, Massachusetts in late August of 2024, today’s show begins with the varied, imaginative “Raise My Voice In Praise”, a rich, evocative song featuring fine instrumental contributions from the whole combo supporting a beautiful, sweeping vocal from Mariam. “Transform” is a steady, powerful gospel-like song built on a two-chord motif from the piano and “Star Ray” begins as a delicate, tonally floating whisper and builds gracefully into a beautiful cathedral of sound with a lush, emotional ballet between Mariam’s vocal and her Native flute. “Make New Friends” appropriates a children’s song to spin a musically rich, mysterious tale about rescuing a stuck deer in the deep winter before spinning into a powerful, gospel-pitched coda of rich vocal and stately piano. The band slips seamlessly into a mysterious, swirling minor and a mirror-image of the previous piece emerges, a night to the day that has passed, lit with moonlight, plaintive and formal. “Let’s Realign” is an energetic, powerful folk reel led by Mariam’s chiming mandolin that grows in power until settling into a beautiful piano coda supporting a hushed, whispered vocal from Mariam. Ludimirra’s arresting, powerful song “My Soul’s Deepest Longing” rises unhurried from a beautiful mesh of Saz and Native flute, his powerful vocal performance arriving as if from a great distance. This piece travels from the Turkish steppes to the frozen north as Bob’s Prokofiev-sourced piano parts push and pull at the eastern modes. Mariam floats in to close today’s show with the solemn, powerful “Honor Your Spirit”, a concluding prayer that stretches and pulls the music in intriguing Afro-Cuban directions.
Learn more about Mariam here: http://www.mariammassaro.com
