NYC Radio Live

This podcast features three weeks of live recordings I made recording traditional music, while serving as the artist-in-residence at the Ureuk World Music House in Chungju Korea.  We'll hear performances on a dozen instruments like the  Gayageum,  Haegeum and Piri  arranged by WonHaeng Cho he Conductor of the Chungju Municipal Ureuk Orchestra for Korean Traditional Music. We'll even hear a recordi...

The weekly Brooklyn Raga Massive Jam Sessions have an incredibly deep bench. The same night Neel Murgai proposed in 7.5 beats (podcast 139) the next set was Max ZT and Ehren Hanson. This recording sounds particularly good because it was mixed and mastered by Phil Duke at Continental Studio in Long Island City, NY.   Lauded as the “Jimi Hendrix of Hammered Dulcimer" by NPR, and a "Force of nature"...

After a beautiful set from the Neel Murgai Ensemble,  Neel proposes to Brooklyn Raga Massive member Seema Pandya, in 7 and half beats! Not a dry eye in the house...    

The brilliant pianist Michele Rosewoman shares the music of her incredible ensemble New Yor-Uba, a group that has been exploring the beauty of the Jazz/Cuba/Yoruba traditions.  They'll be at Dizzy's at Lincoln Center 3/27-29.   Michele Rosewoman, a vanguard and pioneering artist in her field, mines acoustic modern jazz, sophisticated funk, dynamic electric fusion and elements of Cuban folkloric mu...

  Guitar legend Stanley Jordan returns to NYC Radio Live to share his ideas of finding one's voice and role as an artist and bringing his heartfelt new duet album with Kevin Eubanks. “Genius is a word too often tossed around in musical circles, but it has been applied rightfully to Stanley Jordan, the guitar virtuoso.” -Leonard Feather Stanley’s original style of two handed tapping, the touch tech...

    The OM Gam ensemble turned it out at Studio 487 last night!  Another packed house and inspiring music. The was the third concert in out Africa/India series, co-presented by NYC Radio Live, Brooklyn Raga Massive and Afro-Roots Tuesdays. Om Gam ensemble takes it’s name from the mantra for the Hindu deity Ganesh – “Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha.” Ganesh is often referred to as the “remover of obstacle...

Juan Ospina of M.A.KU. Soundsystem joined me on the radio last night. M.A.K.U. is an exciting and eclectic band which hails mostly from Colombia. On stage MA.K.U juxtaposes traditional Colombian percussion, drum-set, synthesizers, electric base, guitar and sizzling horns, creating an explosive performance filled with unshakable grooves. Lyrically M.A.K.U talks about the realities of everyday peopl...

    Robert Browning, New York City's most prolific producer of World Music events shares his personal recordings, highlights from his concerts from over the last 30 years. We'll hear rare recordings from Abida Parveen of Pakistan, Dimi Mint Abba from Mauritania, Noura Mint Seymali of Mauritania, Said Shanbehzadeh-bagpipe from Bushear Iran a; Village group from Luristan (South West Iran), Hassan Ha...

    Here's  the Coyote Anderson Quartet's  live set as broadcast on WKCR,:   Corina Hernandez on Voice & Vocal Harmonizer, Carl Limbacher on Electric Bass &Diego Maldonado on Drums. Coyote has quickly become regarded as one of the most promising up-and-coming artists in New York, both as a guitarist and a composer. As a member of the BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop he has honed his compositional & ar...

  Kiran Ahluwalia, a powerful and elegant singer/composer with roots in Hindustani Music and Ghazal, came by the radio station to share her new album:  Sanata : Stillness.  Her CD Release Concert is Febuary 21st at Roulette in Brooklyn.    

  NYC Radio Live is collaborating with Brooklyn Raga Massive and Afro Roots Tuesdays to present a new monthly live event: The Africa/India Series at Art Cafe. This is the  jam session that followed Africa Meets India in the last podcast Kensuke Shoji on violin, Michael Gam, bass and Shivalik Ghoshal, tabla.  This is 100% improv.  These guys had never played together before.  Later, Kevin Nathaniel...

  NYC Radio Live is collaborating with Brooklyn Raga Massive and Afro Roots Tuesdays to present a new monthly live event: The Africa/India Series at Art Cafe. It couldn't have gone better. The premier concert was last night,  with Afrika Meets India.   The line-up of Eric Fraser, bansuri; Kevin Nathaniel, mbira; Salieu Suso, kora; Giancarlo Luiggi, Hosho: Neel Murgai, sitar and Sameer Gupta, tabla...

These two performances from members of the Brooklyn Raga Massive All Star Party Band  started off the 6 hour Pan-Global Flute Solstice Celebration broadcast on the radio throughout New York City on 12/21/2014.  In this podcast not only was the bansuri featured, as  played by Eric Fraser, in the last set Kevin Nathaniel puts down the mbira and plays a Mbuti style African reed flute.   They were joi...

The oldest instrument ever discovered was a 35,000 year old flute. That was 25,000 years before agriculture, before cities, before the idea of nations,... Yesterday, to celebrate the Winter Solstice, I produced a pan global musical event live on New York City radio. We had players from Indigenous Colombia traditions, Turkish Ney, West African Fula, Indian Bansuri, Japanese Shakuhachi and more. In...

The Arun Ramurthy Trio  perform centuries old classic South Indian compositions with jazz instrumentation and improvisation.   This live performance, recorded this Wednesday at the Brooklyn Raga Massive Jam  was a a celebration of  the release of their new album Jazz Carnatica. The trio’s collaborative sound is driven by the propulsive rhythm section of drummer Sameer Gupta & and bassist Perry Wor...

    Trilok Gurtu is one of the most inventive percussionists of all time. I was thrilled to have a chance to sit down and talk with him and renaissance man Christopher Janney. A world class, virtuoso percussionist, now in his mid fifties, Trilok has attracted a world class set of collaborators over a long career; these started with John McLaughlin in whose trio, Trilok flourished as the featured s...

    Radhika Joshi-Ray, Vocal;  Amod Dandawate, tabla; Achyut Joshi, harmonium Live at Brooklyn Raga  Massive 's Jam Session at Art Cafe Radhika Joshi-Ray is a Indian classical vocalist of the Jaipur Atrauli Gharana. She is a versatile singer and has a firm grounding in Hindustani classical music, as well as semi-classical forms of music such as Thumri, Dadra, Kajri, Hori and Chaiti. Over the years...

      Back from his successful mission to start teaching music literacy in Guinea, Sylvain Leroux returns to NYC Radio Live to share the recordings he made with the children out there and tell us of his experience.  The episode starts with a a spontaneous live performance from Sylvain Leroux accompanied by our host. Sylvain will be producing an event this week in celebration of this effort. CD rel...

  This podcast we were joined by Hatim Belyamani, executive director of remix ←→ culture.  Hatim has been making incredible field recordings throughout Morocco in remote locations.  (Check out the picture below).  He will share these amazing recordings with the WKCR audience and conclude with a live remix of his own.  remix ←→ culture is a nonprofit artist collective committed to growing a convers...

  The Brooklyn Raga Massive All-Stars perform a live, in-studio performance of Terry Riley's masterpiece, "In C" live on the airwaves of WKCR-FM NY. Riley was deeply influenced by his studies of Hindustani vocal music but according to the composer himself, as far as he knows, the Massive is the only group that performs  “In C” with an ensemble of mostly Indian instruments. The group includes  sita...

  Ba-Ere Yotere a master of the African Gyil performs live with great percussionists Valerie Naranjo  (also on Gyil)  and Barry Olsen.   We hung out at Valeries house and recorded a few songs as well as talking to Ba-Ere about his early days with a man I searched for but never found, the great Kakraba Lobi.  

  This was  pure joy: hanging out with the master jazz pianist, Jean-Michel Pilc, in his Brooklyn home.  Speaking about music,  he illustrated his ideas by playing compositions, improvisations and even a Chopin waltz. We recorded this session for WKCR's musician show to be broadcast in New York City, Wednesday Oct 22nd at 6pm on 89.9 FM-NY and stream at www.wkcr.org.   Later in that broadcast, gui...

  Shubhangi Sakhalkar-Vocal Samit Banik - Tabla Rohan Prabhudesai - Harmonium Samita Sinha - Tanpura and Vocal Support August 27th 2014. Another amazing night at the Art Cafe.  Shunbhangi Sakhalkar began the evening with this ethereal performance of Rag Bihag Shubhangi Sakhalkar brings a brilliant pedigree to her music. After her early tutelage with Smt. Kunda Vaishampayan, she spent several years...

After a smoking live set last night from Foday Musa Suso, the great guitarist Raja Kassis came into WKCR with his smokin' new album Human Being.  Raja is known for his work with Blitz the Ambassador, Damian Marley, Angelique Kidjo, Seun Kuti, Antibalas and many others. We conclude the broadcast with  a track from Edwin Quirk's new  Fractal Caravan album.  

   Samarth Nagarkar, Arun Ramamurthy and Sameer Gupta - Live! Brooklyn Raga Massive at Art Cafe 9/2014 Last Wednesday was another legendary evening at Art Cafe.  First,  virtuosos Andrew Mendelson and Ehren Hanson on sitar and tabla tore it up.  Then sitar maestro Pt. Krishna Bhatt  and San Francisco based saxophonist George Brooks wowed the crowd with Michael Gam on bass, Sameer Gupta on drums an...