NYC Radio Live

This week we revisit a classic interview with Hugh Masekela from 2013. Hugh Masekela is the most well known jazz musician from Africa.  His first big hit was in 1968 and he has sold millions of albums, won multiple Grammys and worked with everyone from Stevie Wonder to Dizzy Gillespie. Fresh off a tour with Paul Simon, he and his band are super-refined, with perfect vocal harmonies, deep grooves,...

Walter Becker, co-founder of Steely Dan, passed away this week. Today, I went digging through my archives and found  a 2010 interview we recorded upon the release of Roger Rosenberg's Baritonality, an album Becker produced.  I found it and wanted to share it immediately.  Walter's open spirit, humility, and excitement about the big and small things around music all come through.  We'll listen to s...

Samarth Nagarkar (vocal), Meghashyam Keshav (tabla), Rohan Prabhudesai (harmonium) perform a 6AM set at the Ragas Live Festival 2016. This year’s festival is October 21st 2017 at the Rubin Museum of Art. Samarth will perform at 10pm. Tickets here  

Max ZT Ensemble played a late night set at the Ragas Live Festival 2016 at Pioneer Works. 1am-2am Max ZT (hammered dulcimer), Sameer Gupta (tabla), Priya Darshini (vocal), This year’s festival is October 21st 2017 at the Rubin Museum of Art. At 4pm Max ZT and Jay Gandhi give a tribute to their world-renowned teachers, Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia.  The duo will perform a set inspired...

Adam Maalouf feat. Josh Geisler (bansuri) and Shiva Ghoshal Adam Maalouf (hand pans) , Joshua Geisler (bansuri, guitar, electronics), Shivalik Ghoshal (tabla) Adam is pictured here during their 4AM performance from the Ragas Live Festival 2016 at Pioneer Works Ragas Live is coming to the Rubin on October 21, 2017 Tickets here

Pradhanica with Mike Lukshis (tabla), Kaumil Shah (djembe), and Vincent Pierce (cajon), Indrajit Roy-Chowdhury (sitar) perform a 2-3am set at the Ragas Live Festival 2016 at Pioneer Works. This year’s festival is October 21st 2017 at the Rubin Museum of Art and the sitarist Indro Roy-Chowdhury will play at 11am. Tickets here

Abhik Mukherjee (sitar), Shankh Lahiri (Tabla) play the final set of Ragas Live 2016 at Pioneer Works. This year’s festival is October 21st 2017 Abhik will play at 6pm. Tickets here

Daisy Paradis performs a early morning set

Anupam Shobhakar plays a midnight set at Ragas Live Festival 2016. Anupam Shobhakar (sarod) Shankh Lahiri (Tabla) Live at Pioneer Works 12 am -1am Anupam is a dazzling performer and a virtuoso of the Sarod. He has appeared many times at the Ragas Live Festival. This year’s festival is October 21st 2017 at the Rubin Museum of Art. Tickets here    

The 9pm-10 Set Live at Pioneer Works with Snehashish Mozumdar (mandolin), Shiva Ghoshal (tabla) from the 24 Hour Ragas Live Festival. Snehashish is an explosive, dynamic performer who is pushing the boundaries of his instrument.  He has played on several Ragas Live Festivals in the past. This year's festival is October 21st 2017 at the Rubin Museum of Art.   Tickets here    

Here’s a great one from the archives! A beautiful live performance and discussion with Abdoulaye Alhassane Tourewith Deep Sahara at WKCR in 2010.  w/ Yacouba Diabate (Kora) Frederika Krier (Violin) and David Ellenbogen (guitar).  Abdoulaye is a guitarist and singer from Gao, Mali with roots in Northern Mali and Niger.  He brings all these regional sounds of this diverse part of the world into his...

Jean-Claude van Itallie, is a creative force across many genres.  Norman Mailer called one his works "possibly the best one-act play I have ever seen.” He's a poet, meditator, health-guru, translator, writer and it doesn't stop there.  We sit on the porch with Jean-Claude van Itallie at his inspriring retreat center, Shantigar.

Today we share a WKCR broadcast featuring musicians Amir ElSaffar, Awa Sangho, Roman Diaz, Martha Redbone, and producer Hans Taparia from the India Center Foundation. We were promoting Outside (In)dia a free concert series, at Lincoln Center featuring all those great musicians.  The opening event is this Friday with Amir El Saffar and we'll hear a discussion with Amir as well as music from all the...

Brooklyn Raga Massive's Coltrane Raga Tribute are about to drop their New Album - and the release party will be a free concert in Prospect Park at Celebrate Brooklyn June 23rd with Pharoah Sanders headlining! We hang with Sameer Gupta, the tabla upstart, drummer and musical director of the project and listen to a live performance from Pioneer Works. If you want to hear it all you'll have to get th...

Barbès is a small Brooklyn club which has been presenting music on a daily basis for now 15 years. Started on a shoestring budget in a former barber shop in the South Slope, Barbès has for years acted as a kind of laboratory for all different kinds of new projects and become a true community hub. They're in the hole $70,000K and have turned to the community for support. The community has answered...

For Chico Freeman, Jazz is the family business.  His father played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald and his grandfather was an associate of Louis Armstrong. Chico has had an amazing career playing with the likes of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Sun Ra, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Celia Cruz, Charles Mingus, Tito Puente, to name a few.  We got to hang with the g...

The day after a moving performance with Ravi Coltrane, Reggie Workman, Jeff Tain Watts an other giants of Jazz, we hung out at home with Jay Gandhi! After our short conversation he shares a special live performance. Jay is an artist who dedicated to the Hindustani tradition and is also bringing his instrument, the bansuri, into new territory.  

The nineteenth set of the historic, Ragas Live Festival 2016, live at Pioneer Works.  Samarth Nagarkar (vocal), Meghashyam Keshav (tabla), Rohan Prabhudesai (harmonium).  This is a great to chance to experience music created for the sunrise.  It was performed as the first rays broke through the evening sky. Samarth Nagarkar is a Hindustani classical vocalist, known for his captivating performances...

This was one of my favorite early episodes.  Cosmas Magya is a master of the Mbira ( a type of thumb piano) from the Shona tribe in Zimbabwe.  Here he performs and explains the way the instrument is used in ceremonies to contact ancestors.  We'll also hear a track he recorded with another powerful Mbira player and vocalist Beauler Dyoko. (Rebroadcast from 2011)

We get to hang at home with LADAMA!  We recorded some songs and chat with  Mafer Bandola (bandola llanera), Lara Klaus (percussion, drums), Daniela Serna (percussion)  Sara Lucas (voice, guitar) and Pat Swoboda (bass).   LADAMA is an ensemble of women musicians (joined by Pat for this session) who combine the rhythms and traditional instrumentation of frevo and maracatu from Pernambuco, Brazil;  j...

We're psyched to see that one of one of our favorite groups in NYC Innov Gnawa is combining forces with the great Vieux Farka Tourre this Thursday at BRIC. Last September, we got sit down and hang with Vieux Farka Toure, talk to him and record a little acoustic music…AND record his entire live set at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan with his moking band!  Many thanks to World Music Institute and Le P...

With stirring vocal harmonies and luscious arrangements, Miramar breathe life into the classic bolero tradition.  We got to sit down with their music director and keyboardist, Marlyse Simmons and learn about the history of boleros and hear and learn about the muse of their new album Sylvia Rexach.  

The world-renowned Moroccan Festival Gnaoua et Musiques du MondeEssaouira celebrates its 20th anniversary with a debut NYC collaboration. Great Maalems (masters) and all-stars of the festival trace a musical journey of the ancient music of Gnawa during a night of trance and tradition. There will be events all week in NYC. In this WKCR broadcast we get to speak with master drummer, Will Calhoun; Sa...

Mitali Banerjee Bhawmik (vocal), Meghashyam Keshav (tabla), Ramachandra Joshi (harmonium) perform Raag Miyan Ki Malhar from 5-6pm at the Ragas Live Festival 2016 in Pioneer Works.