Minstrels of His Love: "A band of celestial troubadors took birth,
Bob carried an uncontainable
enthusiasm. Before long he had his guitar out and was playing ecstatic
songs he himself had written to Beloved Baba. I listened enrapt. Bob
sang "Meher Baba's Love" with its rising chorus of repeations
of that phrase, and "Song To St. Francis." It couldn't have been many
years laterdidn't Meher Baba's poet, Francis Brabazon, say "we
no longer measure time with 'so and so many years ago'? Now we say,
'so and so many cups ago'," as we imbibe Wine from the
Master's Tavern of Love that another musical event rocked my
planet with the melodies and rhythms of Baba's Love in song. That
was when Jim Meyer released his sublime first album, "One
Real Friend." (Thank Meher it's still around on cassettesome
day, I hope, on CD!) Jim's latest, produced and accompanied by Tom Dimock, is the delightful double CD, Om Namo. At this link you can see all his major albums to date.
Back in "those days",
a band of celestial troubadors who loved Meher Baba also made several
group albums that got me giddy. Most of these are no longer available.
I think a tape of one of them, "The Ancient One", though,
is available. Bob and Jim put new stars in my skies with their music. Their outpouring of love through music surely had a great deal to do with my own bursting into song. Around 1980, Bob married Jane Vascardi. Bob and Jane Brown recorded several lovely tapes that are still available. Bob has left us now, for this lifetime, but his music and inspiration remain. Jane has done a solo album in the past few years. Bob and Jim were not alone,
even "way back then". Ward
Parks, Kathy
Riley, Jeff Wolverton, Bill Cliff, and so many others I could
never enumerate them, were all part of the Musical Rennaisance of
Meher Baba's Love in the '60s, '70s, and and 80's. Today there are
so many musicians I can't begin to keep up. I've personally felt deeply
touched by the songs of Roger
Robinson, and some by Gabriella
Tal. I recently listened to the gritty, deeply-felt lyrics and
strums of Brian
Darnell. Buz
Connor, Jamie,
Newell, and Raine
Eastman-Gannett have also been prolific. Raphael
Rudd, who met Baba as a child, gave ecstatic concerts and recorded
a number of albums before he passed away in 2002. Another strain of Meher
Baba music developed under the leadership of the Murshids of Sufism
Reoriented, the Sufi Order Meher Baba took under His wing and wrote
a charter for in 1952. Directed by David Hogan, who collaborated extensively
with Hank Mindlin, the Sufi chorus performed numerous original works.
The most ambitious of them was a full-scale Oratorio: "The
Elements: An Oratorio in Praise of Meher Baba". Terry
Hogan, the current choral director, has brought many other projects
to fruition in recent years. It's no longer possible for me to listor even to hearall the artists who have recorded tapes and CDs devoted to Avatar Meher Baba. And still more play or sing their hearts out without ever going into a recording studio. You're still likely to walk into a Meher Baba meeting, anywhere in the world, and hear something thatwell, that only God could inspire. ***** new! Avatar Meher Baba (AMB) Online Radio! Listen to Some of Max Reif's Songs "What Remains Is the
Essence", the home pages of Max Reif:
SCHOOL
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