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| Gaia Roots | mp3.com/GaiaRoots |
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Inspired by the roots folkloric music from around the world, the women of Gaia Roots blend vocal harmonies with percussion rhythms creating a unique weave of traditional music and original creations. Gaia Roots has been traveling, studying, and performing together for eight years. In their travels, they have collected a sizable repertoire of songs, dances, stories and traditional instruments from master musicians, teachers and carvers from around the world. Each member plays many styles of instruments. From West Africa they incorporate the Djembe, Djun-Djun, Balafon and Krin. From Cuba you will hear the Congas, Clave, Shekere, Guirro, Ashieko, Bongos, Maraca and Kata. American as well as Jamaican influences include Bass and Acoustic Guitar and the Kete Drum. From Brazil, the sounds of the Berimbau; a traditional instrument with roots in Angola, Africa. You will also hear songs and instrumentation from Europe, Native America, Israel, Macedonia, South Africa, India, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Haiti. Co-founder Aimee Gelinas has rich influences in Afro-Cuban percussion and song having studied with masters of percussion, song and dance there on three different occasions in Havana and Matanzas as well as with local master drummer Joe Platz. She led the group to study there in 1999 and 2000. She was a vocalist and percussionist with Abdul Baki Roots Reggae for 4 years and completed a CD recording. Currently, Aimee sings and writes in a rock group called Ritual, plays with an Afro-Caribbean percussion and dance troupe called Roots, Rhythm and Rapture and also instructs drumming to children and adults in the Berkshires and plays lead percussion in a weekly Afro-Caribbean dance class. She recently returned from two-month study travel to Senegal and Gambia West Africa. Co-founder Shanti Stark has powerful roots in West African drumming. She has toured and lived in West Africa (Guinea, Gambia, and Senegal) performing and studying with master drummers and singers from those regions for the past 5 years. She has toured with two bands while in West Africa; the Paris based reggae band A.Rahmen Sound System of Gambia and the Fulaband, featuring traditional Fulani music from Senegal and Gambia. Here in Massachusetts, she sang lead vocals with a nine-piece world music ensemble Pangea and currently sells traditional African instruments, art and clothing from her shop in Leverett, Tabala. Currently, she is the production manager for the Gaia Roots CD and organizes multi-band shows throughout Western Massachusetts. Bass player, percussionist and singer/songwriter Cinamon Blair comes from an artistic family and has been playing and studying music for over 20 years. Originally from Brooklyn, she brings strength in percussion, bass, vocals and guitar to Gaia Roots. She has recorded her own demo CD with her ensemble Motet and currently plays in the Reggae group the Equalites. Percussionist and vocalist Mariposa Manoli comes from the West African drumming tradition having studied with Babatunde Olatunji and Quint Lange for seven years. She toured throughout Florida with The Coffee Mill Drum and Dance Troupe with her teacher Quint. Currently, she teaches drumming in the summers at Camp Kingsmont in West Stockbridge and drums for the Eden Hill Recreation Center Summer Dance Camp and the Afro-Caribbean Dance class. She recently returned from teaching drum workshops at a festival in Tennessee. Dancer and percussionist Patti Brinster has been inspired by dance and music from early on having studied many forms including Modern, Jazz, Ballet and Appalachian style dance. For the past 10 years, she has been studying the traditions of West Africa and Caribbean dance and drumming with local masters Sekou Sylla and Joe Platz as well as Mohamed Camara, Oshun Kemi and Abdoulaye Sylla. She performed and choreographed with the Ino Washington West African Ensemble and danced with The Power of The Drum Troupe. Currently, she teaches West African dance at The Putney School and The Pioneer Valley of Performing Arts. Dancer and Shekere player Tracy Vernon joins Gaia Roots in Caribbean and African dance. She holds a M.Ed. in creative conflict resolutions and applies her knowledge of dance and children in a dance curriculum that she offers to local schools. She has been dancing, teaching and traveling for over 10 years and currently leads her own Afro-Caribbean dance and drum company Roots, Rhythm and Rapture. Tracy has been to Puerto Rico and Cuba for study and plans to go to Haiti in the coming year. She teaches dance to children and adults. Gaia Roots has performed in festivals with over 80,000 in attendance, school assemblies, art centers, political and social rallies and events, cafes and on the radio (WMUA). They have been recipients of local cultural council grants since 1997 and are currently recording their first CD in Springfield, MA at Soundwave Studios (to be released this winter...). Through song, rhythm, dance and story the women of Gaia Roots weave together traditions from around the world and they continue to pass on these traditions and create unity through music. BOOKING INFO: Aimee Gelinas 413-522-1505 PO Box 23 Cummington, MA 01026 Shanti Stark 413-367-0083 PO Box 613 Leverett, MA 01054 FAX (c/o TABALA ) 413-548-9080 Full_circle_o@yahoo.com gaiaroots@mail.com www.mp3.com/gaiaroots
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