To be released on Palmyra Recordings on March 21, 'Levantine Indulgence' is a diverse journey. Along with the sounds of the Fertile Crescent, Gaida explores Arabic maqam, Egyptian baladi and Tarab songs, throwing in jazz and bossa nova to the eclectic mix. Gaida's far-ranging sound has already landed her a gig at the Kennedy Center, and she was featured in Jonathan Demme's film, 'Rachel Getting Married".
"The call to prayer has been stuck in my soul since I was a little kid," she said in a press release. "Four o'clock in the morning, when Damascus was so quiet, all the mosques were calling for prayer, and you hear the collection of them in the most unbelievable harmonies. Mostly I would hear the mosque next to our house, where they used to improvise from one maqam (melodic scale) to another. And improvise beautifully. I think this is where I get a lot of the melodies in my head and why improvisation comes easily to me. You can throw me in any band and I invoke the sounds around me and mix them within me."