Gabriel was borne of a musical family,
and music has always been a Unifying Factor in his life. From
the sing along to the drum circle, from the ensemble to the
trance-dance, Gabriel's ministry is being channeled more and
more thru sacred music. Read on to learn more about Gabriel's
musical roots and latest endeavours . . .
As a toddler, growing up in the commune,
Gabriel would often gravitate to the mic stands at the front
of the stage, when his father and mother would play and sing
in the communal band, Quazar. Gabriel
always sensed that musical gatherings were sacred space - a
space of transcendence and exploration. He always loved the
communal dances and sing along nights as well.
When Gabriel was a youngster, his father, Bill
Hannaford, took him down into the music studio of the communal
house and, in the back room, sat him down and put a coronet
on his lap. After showing Gabriel the sounds it made and how
to hold it, he left him to practice. Gabriel put it down after
a few peeps and went over to the conga drums - he was drawn
to approach music from the feel side. Bill would continue to
share his love of music with Gabriel, even to the extent of
having him sit in on hand-drums with his jazz quartet or dixieland
band on occasion.
 It
would take the drum circles at the Whole
Earth Festival, at UC Davis, to really awaken Gabriel's
muse. He realized that he could listen and respond to the group
dynamic well and began finding ways of contributing. He took
Congolese Drumming from Membe Panguao thru the Expirimental
College, and would sometimes play for his Congolese Dance
class.
At the 1990 Whole Earth Festival,
Quazar, the commune rock-gospel band,
reunited for a special concert (pictured). Bill Hannaford lead
on guitar and vocals, Kathy and Hosanna joined the backup vocalists,
and Gabriel and brother Cosmon joined in on congas. A joyous
time was had by all, especially when Alan Beale arrived at the
last minute (driving in from Idaho!) to send off the set with
"Share the World".
At one of UC Davis's concerts in the Quad,
Gabriel saw Jeff Simmons playing bass for the Bill Shchoeler's
Blues Band, and realized bass would be his way into music.
The Universe provided Gabriel with a beuatiful P-Bass from a
friend, and he started taking lessons with Jeff at Davis Music,
and started jamming with friends.
In Pittsburgh, Gabriel was drawn to a group
of friends who would end up forming a band called
Makalo. They had a couple bizarre and wonderful
gigs, one at the Beaux Arts Ball, and one of which
was a 9 story impromptu roof party on top of the dormitories
that was busted by campus police. Thanks to these musical friends,
Gabriel was able to keep his muse rolling, if somewhat at the
expense of set design school.
When Gabriel finally completed grad school
he came back to California, where his sister, Hosanna, brother
Adamen, and two friends had formed a zappa inspired rock band
with original songs called The
Infamous They. Gabriel joined in on percussion,
and they would play out in the greater Bay Area alot. The
Infamous They developed an ecclectic and responsive following,
made a nice little ripple in the music scene, and recorded a
self produced album called Distracted Again.
 When
"They" disbanded, practically the whole group
ended up migrating to an odd-metered progressive funk ensemble,
led by Nathanial (Nat) Hawkes, called Research
& Development. It was very innovative
and tonally powerful music, with a fully deranged 3-piece horn
section, a rhythm section that could really cook, and compositions
that tweaked ears in a wonderful way. And somehow people found
a way to dance to it! Gabriel joined in on Djembe, congas and
bongos during his years with "R&D".
In 1999, Gabriel's father left his body. Gabriel
was living on the side of Mount Tam at the time, and began to
feel the call to play bass with a group of friends who would
end up calling themselves Nomas (after
zero point gravity). This period saw Gabriel take up fretless
bass to learn about intonation. He also contributed on percussion,
drum kit and vocals. And Gabriel was called to pick up his father's
trombone for the first time.
Gabriel loved the inter-active listening of
live music, and would go out to places like Bruno's,
the Boom Boom Room and the Fillmore to practice
music appreciation thru dance. He was also tempered on the diverse
musical programming of KCSM and KPFA. All
this was opening the way for Gabriel to commune with his father
thru music. R&D relocated to the East Bay and began
playing out more at parties, bars and clubs in the Bay Area.
They also did a good deal of recording as well. Gabriel learned
a lot about ensemble sound and movement, and even composed a
song for the band, exploring a 15/16 time signature and avante-garde
harmonies.
In 2004, Gabriel was called to Harbin Hot Springs, and immersed
himself in the musical community there. He discovered kirtan
chanting at Harbin and would attend "religiously",
twice a week. Gabriel ended up joining the Harbin
Kirtan Band, offering support on bass and percussion.
But his appreciation of voice as the primary instrument would
flower thru these regular sessions of bahkti yoga. And the Harbin
Temple, with it's sacred acoustical geometry, added a whole
new dimension to his joyful exploration of devotional music.
At Harbin, Gabriel also began in earnest to
pick up the horn. It took a major knock on his heart chakra
to awaken him to his calling with the trombone: to channel and
intone a call to awakening in these times. Gabriel co-created
a sextet of Harbin residents called Harbin Family
Values, and played for the Harbin Garden &
Art Party (pictured).
 Gabriel
is now in regular musical rotation with Jagadambe,
a mantra dance band which enjoys playing at events like the
Mondocino Living Culture Festival, and at venues like
Ashkenaz and at other studios and yoga centers. He
joins in on bass, percussion and, more recently, trombone.
Find out more about Gabriel's upcoming gigs
and musical services on the events
page. It is Gabriel's intention to contribute and minister to
the muse when called on, to sound the call and intone a prayerful
celebration for the delivery of all children, women and men
into the New Age Heaven on Earth being born now...
Jai Ma!
Music can be experienced as a form of yoga,
as a union of solar (pingala) energy with lunar (ida) energy,
synthesising into the Galactic (shoshumna) "3-in-1"
energies. In "western music" this can be found in
the interplay between the major and minor modes, and with odd
and even meter. This is the "3 against 4" of earth-based
music, reflective of 7th density conciousness. When we factor
"3 times 4" we come into 12th density conciousness
- the "music of the spheres". The time of timelessness,
where we are as eternal sound, going forth to fulfill that for
which we have been sent... This is 12th density "zero-point"
conciousness.
  As
shown here in the "sri yantra of music", all 7 of
the modes are points on the "zodiac" of the 12 note
scale. The 5 skipped steps represent the lost 5 dimensions of
human conciousness. The 7 modes and 7 notes of music are relative
to the 7 chakras running vertically up the spine. This modal
illustration shows the mirroring of the modes, with Dorian being
the only self-mirroring mode, and the true center of western
music.
The 5 missing tones are are akin to the 5 points
of the star-body (as in Davinci's vitruvian man), which speaks
to the 5 added dimensions of Galactic star beings. These radiant,
creative energies shine thru the limbs of the body, from the
core of our heart chakra and spiral out horizontally.
When taken as a whole, the 12 tones of the
chromatic scale are reflective of the 12 dimensional, Galactic,
zero point spheriodal conciousness - with the 7 vertical chakras
synthsising with the 5 horizontal directions of the magicians
circle into the multi-dimensional atomic sphere body of our
soul.
To synthesize the 5 and the 7 into the 12,
we enter into co-creative improvisation and the "golden
rule" of music: listen unto others as you would have them
listen unto you. Every group has a nucleus where the energies
meet, and this is that "sweet spot" where we address
our intonation.
In his study of the trombone, Gabriel synthesizes
the 7 slide positions with the "golden mean spiral"
of the natural overtone series. These kinds of sacred geometry
and acoustical alchemy are the essence of musical yoga. Krishna's
flute is symbolic of his mastery of the "flute of the chakras",
and thru musical communion, we remember our unique role in the
symphony of Creation.
The "music of the spheres" refers
to the ETI chrystal ball computers (orbs) that flash thru and
visit us in prayer - and co-create things like crop circles,
a harbinger of the New World and Autonomous Self Government.
Music becomes a pivotal tool for the redemption of souls in
our dimenshional shift into a Christ Communal World.
"And so it is!"
|
