NYC Radio Live

As we recover from our legendary 24 hour Ragas Live Festival this weekend, we share two great past  episodes with talents that will be performing very soon.  We'll hear some of Awa Sangho and the BRM's All Stars blistering set as the group is set to return to the Rubin Museum of Art on  August 12th.  Hear her full set Pioneer Works here.  And we'll revisit our chat with Lech Wierzynski of the Cali...

Wow! A chance to talk with a legend of African Music, King Sunny Ade!   For me this is a dream come true, there are few musicians as influential as King  Sunny Ade who brought the Juju music of Nigeria to the world.   Here we  speak with him in depth about his life and the roots of his music. King Sunny Ade came on the scene in 1966 and made his first big record in 1967. He became an international...

Eric Krasno is the amazing guitarist/producer with artists ranging from  Soulive and Lettuce (both of which he co-founded)to  Norah Jones,  50 Cent, Aaron Neville, Phil Lesh, Derek Trucks, and, well, the list keeps going! To celebrate the upcoming release of his new album, Blood From A Stone, we got to hang with Eric at his home studio, hear him play some guitar and share what he's learned so far...

In part 1 of this podcast we spend time at home with Jay Gandhi (bansuri) and Abhik Mukherjee (sitar) as they prepare for the a special evening of Monsoon Ragas at the Rubin Museum on June 15.  The two  perform live and share insights and legends about the malhar group of ragas, those that praise the monsoon rains.  This episode was broadcast on WKCR 89.9 FM-NY on Sunday June 5th. In part two we h...

Last month, maestro Román Díaz brought a world class group of Afro-Cuban musicians to perform with the Brooklyn Raga Massive All-Stars during the artist collective's epic residency at Pioneer Works. We'll share the recording of that innovative concert, where, for the first time, sarod, bansuri and Carnatic violin dialogue with Afro-Cuban vocals and the sacred Batá drums.   This concert will air on...

I've never heard a radio show go off the rails like this one! Counterculture hero, ethnobotanist and "psychonaut" Dennis McKenna, in a freewheeling conversation with ethnomusicologist Alexandre Tannous and comedian Greg Barris.  This was broadcast in NYC on the radio in 2013, when McKenna had just published  his memoir The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss about his wild  experiences with his leg...

Debo band explores the rich and varied traditions of Ethiopian music with a dose of funk, punk and soul. With a large instrumental ensemble and a charismatic singer Bruck Tesfaye it all adds up to an undeniable party band. We got to hang with the leader of this amazing group, Danny Mekonnen and here excerpts of their upcoming album Ere Gobez (FPE Records; May 20, 2016).  They'll be playing in NYC...

A legendary percussionist, Román Díaz is a pillar of the New York City Afro-Cuban folkloric tradition and one of the music's great innovators.   He is considered an Olú Aña or “keeper of the sacred drum”  Before his Raga Cubana concert with the Brooklyn Raga Massive  (we hope to share that soon!) he gave this workshop where he spoke of the legends, history and musical foundations of Afro-Cuban Mus...

As a lifelong fan of Shakti, hanging with  V. Selvaganesh was a dream come true.  Here the master percussionist V. Selvaganesh talks about his music and shares his experience with John McLaughlin's Remember Shakti and other great collaborations.   He breaks down the South Indian rhythmic system and we hear selections from his album Souhka.   Our friend Arun Ramamuthy joins the discussion. Born in ...

Whoa! This one went viral.  Here is the full hour podcast interview and below is a half hour of video interview with George Porter.  As the bass player of the Meters, George Porter, Jr. defined one of the most influential styles of popular music. It's now called "Funk."  Beyond that he's on a million records including all the killer material coming out of the Sea-Saint studio in New Orleans with c...

New music!  A  burnin' set of classical raga from last week's Brooklyn Raga Massive's Raga Roots Night, as broadcast on WKCR 89.9 FM-NY and performed at Pioneer Works. Anirban Dasgupta – sarod Suryaksha Deshpande – tabla Present Raag Kafi Kanada

The opening concert of Brooklyn Raga Massive's 3 month residency at Pioneer Works was a smash.   For this special night,  we had an ambitious triple bill,  celebrating the full year of the  Africa/India series collaborations that had been produced by NYC Radio Live, Afro-Roots Music night and Brooklyn Raga Massive.    We featured the “golden voice of Mali,” Awa Sangho, with by the Brooklyn Raga Ma...

Orakel is a brand new electro-acoustic project of Kora/oud player, Kane Mathis and tabla player, Roshni Samlal, who began their collaboration at the Brooklyn Raga Massive. Using electronic compositional elements of sound design, field recordings, and drones, they create a new context for traditional elements of Indian classical percussion and Kora repertoire. They performed live at Shapeshifter La...

Of all the concerts I've produced this was one of the most exciting and meaningful.  This installation of Africa/India Series live at ShapeShifter Lab was a synergy of the Morrocan trance tradition embodied by Hassan Ben Jaffer and Innov Gnawa as we combined forces with the musicians of the Brooklyn Raga Massive All-Stars. Thanks to Sameer Gupta for mixing this Mutha! INNOV GNAWA Maalem (Master)Ha...

  This was a meeting of musical royalty from Mauritania, vocalist Noura Mint Seymali, with her husband  Jeiche Ould Chighaly on fretless electric guitar collaborating for the first time with Brooklyn Raga Massive's Jay Gandhi (bansuri flute) and Ehren Hanson (tabla). It was a spontaneous and beautiful meeting of two musical worlds and very much inspired our whole Africa/India Series.   The multi-t...

Recorded a few days ago at Brooklyn Raga Massive's weekly concert and and jam session at  ShapeShifter Lab, this set of music suggests new directions in the  between raga and jazz. It will be broadcast in New York City, on Sunday Dec. 6 on WKCR 89.9 FM-NY 7-9PM and stream at www.wkcr.org In the 1960's, led by the Art Blakey, The Jazz Messengers led the movement of hard bop which returned the music...

To celebrate the upcoming release of her new album, From the Ground Up.    musical polymath Hadar Noiberg brought her trio to Continental Records, to record a special live set just for us!  This special podcast will also broadcast this week on the radio,  WKCR 89.9 FM-NY and stream www.wkcr.org at 11pm EST on November 8. It was really exciting to have her bring in an all star band: With Phil Duke...

Two weeks ago, on John Coltrane's Birthday, Brooklyn Raga Massive performed a stunning tribute to the Coltrane Legacy. Recorded in front of a capacity crowd at Pioneer Works in Red Hook, Brooklyn, NYC Radio Live will share the concert in it's entirety.  It will be broadcast on the radio at WKCR 89.9 at 7pm on October 11th.  Musical Director Sameer Gupta joins host David Ellenbogen for an on-air di...

One from the archives:  There was much talk about Randy Weston on the last few episodes about Gnawa music.  I thought I'd broadcast part 1 of an interview I did with him a few years back.  This was first broadcast as a podcast that I never really got going with.  If you haven't checked him out, I hope this will inspire you to check out some albums or see him in concert. Part 2 coming soon...we hun...

In our first collaboration with the stellar Rubin Museum of Art, we presented at sold out concert, an Evening with the Brooklyn Raga Massive.    It featured a first set of Dan Weiss and Sameer Gupta in a tabla duel followed by a second set of Max ZT, hammered dulcimer, Ehren Hanson, tabla, Jay Gandhi, bansuri and Arun Ramamurthy violin, plus a jam session/ party in the cafe afterwards.  Here's the...

Recorded live at Lincoln Center,   Gnawa Diffusion are true rebel rockers who deftly slide from traditional Gnawa sounds to reggae, rock, dancehall and and million other styles.   The group's leader and visionary is Amazigh Kateb who hails from  Algeria.  I was lucky to hang with Amazigh a few days later in Brooklyn, (along with Alexandre Tannous)  and record our discussion. Thanks to Meera Dugal...

This podcast features a live in-studio, late night recording of InnoVe Gnawa. It sounds as good as anything I've recorded at WKCR thanks to the help of Phil Duke from Continental Recording Studio. We had a blast hanging out and recording, and this lines up with a big free concert they'll be playing this Thursday  at Lincoln Center, and the release of their new self titled album. InnoVe Gnawa is a...

The 24 hour festival concluded with this beautiful performance from Tripti Mukherjee.   She performed with Samir Chatterjee (tabla) and Jay Gandhi (bansuri)  

Ustad Aashish Khan,  accompanied by Anupam Shobhakar (Sarod)  Dan Weiss Ragas Live  performed the penultimate set at the Ragas Live Festival 2015 from 10pm-11pm

This set begins with  Sanghamitra Chatterjee (vocal) with Samir Chatterjee (tabla) and is then followed by a  Tabla Duet – Samir Chatterjee and Tejas Tope, which occurred from 9-10pm on the Ragas Live Festival 2015