NYC Radio Live

This is a great conversation with Rauf Saami of the Saami Brothers brilliantly translated by his Ashar Mumtaz. The Saami Brothers will be preforming for the world music institute on Saturday, October 4, 2025 https://www.worldmusicinstitute.org/saamibrotherskhayal/ The Saami family is the living custodian of the Delhi Qawwal Bacha Gharana – a musical school of thought — founded in the 14th century...

2 AM set of the 24 hour Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works 10.23.22 Qasim Naqvi (Analog Synths - New York)   Originally broadcast on WKCR-FM   Ragas Live Festival 2025 October 18-19 at Pioneer Works Ragas Live Festival   Watch more of the Ragas Live Festival videos on YouTube ! Follow Ragas Live Festival

12 PM set of the 24 hour Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works 10.23.22   Vinay Desai (santoor) Vivek Pandya (tabla)   Originally broadcast on WKCR-FM   Ragas Live Festival 2025 October 18-19 at Pioneer Works Ragas Live Festival   Watch more of the Ragas Live Festival videos on YouTube ! Follow Ragas Live Festival

9 PM set of the 24 hour Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works 10.14.23 Trio from the legendary ensemble Bang on a Can, performing music of Nik Bartch, Brian Eno and others.  Vicky Chow (piano) David Cossin (percussion) Mark Stewart (guiter)   Originally broadcast on WKCR-FM   Ragas Live Festival 2025 October 18-19 at Pioneer Works Ragas Live Festival   Watch more of the Ragas Live Festival videos o...

7:15 AM set of the 24 hour Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works 10.20.24 Namami Karmakar (singer) Dibyarka Chatterjee (tabla) Anirban Chakrabarty (harmonium)   Originally broadcast on WKCR-FM   Ragas Live Festival 2025 October 18-19 at Pioneer Works Ragas Live Festival   Watch more of the Ragas Live Festival videos on YouTube ! Follow Ragas Live Festival

2:50 PM Set of the 24 Hour Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works 10.15.23 Supruli is a NYC-based choir devoted to the traditional folk and liturgical polyphonic singing tradition from Georgia Led by Carl Linich, the choir features Leo Decristoforo, Marina Decristoforo, Ezra Halleck, Sarah Kessler Wolven, Jay Laubscher, Sunny Lawrence, Sarah Leitao, Luka Linich, Sarah Mullins and Addie Grace Mahdavi

Manik Khan (sarod) + Sudhakar Vaidyanathan (tabla) pay tribute to Manik’s father, Ali Akbar Khan. 2:30 AM Set of the 24 Hour Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works 2022 Originally broadcast on WKCR-FM The next festival is happening 10/18-19 at Pioneer Works, tix and info at www.ragaslive.com

2:00 AM set of the 24 hour Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works 10.20.24 U. Rajesh (mandolin), Harshad Kanetka (tabla) and Swaminathan Selvaganesh (kanjira) at the Ragas Live Festival More details and tix for this October at Ragas Live Festival  

It was an incredible thill to hang with Jaimoe, the legendary drummer of the Allman Brothers at WKCR 2014.  To hear Jaimoe's song selections from the program, check out this playlist on spotify.     Jaimoe shared stories and dug through our record library. When asked if he had a good time, he said "That's a f#$ng understatement!"  Also joining us was Alan Paul the band's official biographer and s...

Joe Boyd is a legendary producer who helped bring artists like Pink Floyd, Nick Drake and Toumani Diabate to the world alongside producing classic albums by Toots and the Maytals, REM, Taj Mahal and countless others.  His new book is " And the Roots of Rhythm Remain " and it is an astounding and inspiring history of music from around the globe.  I can't recommend it enough.  Joe Boyd will be at th...

Jay Gandhi (bansuri) and Ishaan Ghosh (tabla) perform Rag Malkauns at the  Ragas Live Festival 2024. 12:30 AM set of the 24 hour event.   A multifaceted artist, Jay Gandhi’s music is at once reflective of his devotion to his Guru, the inimitable legend of the bansuri, Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia, as well as a diverse range of other musical influences. Jay’s initial training in Hindustani music was und...

Two of our favorite artists, Saraswathi Ranganathan (veena) & Swaminathan Selvaganesh (kanjira) returned to Ragas Live Festival 2024 for a late night/early morning set of Carnatic music. It was 5:30 AM set of the 24 hour festival at Pioneer Works on 10.20.24 and Saraswathi led the audience on a journey.   Saraswathi brings with her a legacy of firsts. She is the first Indian woman and Veena ar...

We hang a maestro of Bulgarian music, Lubomir Smilenov, and hear his incredible performance from Ragas Live Festival 2020 with Matt Moran.  Both performers will be featured at this weekend's Zlatne Ustne Golden Festival January 17-18 in Astoria, Queens.  Lubomir Smilenov, born in Bulgaria and raised in New York City, found a unique expression of his heritage through the Kaba Gaida, the traditional...

New York's greatest music bash, the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival is returning to Astoria Queens, January 17-18, 2025.  Over 50 ensembles particiapte on several stages and dancefloors, brass bands, polyphonic choirs...Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romani, Turkish, Serbian, Greek, Persian, Klezmer, you name it... after 39 years of this festival it has evolved to become one incredible party.     In this epis...

The most mind-blowing message I ever received was from the multi Grammy winning,  ground-breaking kora master, Toumani Diabate, in 2020.  Recorded hours earlier in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa it was a live performance he made with his sons Ahmed Diabate and Balla Diabate to contribute to that year's virtual Ragas Live Festival.  "Was it ok?" He asked.   OK? It was astounding! In this special episod...

This was the second interview we conducted with Zakir Hussain, who passed away on December 15, 2024.   More than any other musician who came before him, he brought the tabla to an international stage.  His story, like the man, is legend.  I hope our conversation encourages you to dig deep into his rich catalog of astounding recordings including his own Making Music, all the Shakti albums, Planet D...

An unbelievable live performance featuring 2024 Grammy Award winner Ganesh Rajagopalan (violin) and Anantha R. Krishnan (mridangam) as broadcast on WKCR from the Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works in 2024. You can hear our conversation after the set on the previous podcast.   A virtuoso since childhood Ganesh Rajagopalan has been performing on stage since the tender age of 7 years old. He has be...

After an incredible set with Anantha R. Krishnan (mridangam)at Ragas Live Festival, we caught up with THE violin maestro, 2024 Grammy Award winner Ganesh Rajagopalan, for a quick on-air conversation about his journey in music.   A child prodigy who began performing at the age of seven, Ganesh rose to stardom performing with legends like tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and guitarist John McLaughlin of...

A memorable performance from Slowspin at the Ragas Live Festival 2024 featruing Zeerak Ahmed (vocals+electronics), Grey Mcmurray (guitar), Marlon Patton (drums) Shahzad Ismaily (bass)     This was the 9PM set on October 21st, the 4th set during 24 hours of continuous music at Pioneer Works, in Red Hook Brooklyn. US-based Pakistani artist, Slowspin (Zeerak Ahmed) has a distinct sound practice groun...

 Ud. Bashir Khan (bulbul tarang) and Ud. Feroz Khan (tabla) perform Rag Desh on 10/19/2024 at the Ragas Live Festival 2024 at Pioneer Works.  This was a very rare presentation of Raga on the Bulbul Tarang a unique instrument used more often in folk music and light classical from Pakistan and India.    The instrument was created in Japan in 1912 based on the concept of combining the mechanics of a...

7PM set of the 24 hour Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works 10.19.24 Ragas Live Festival 2024 opened with this beautiful set: Seema Gulati (sitar) and Anirban Roy Chowdhury (Tabla).  

The grand finale of 24 hours of music at Pioneer Works! The Afghan superstars Houmayoun Sakhi (Rubab) and Salar Nader (Tabla) perform an explosive set of music.  

This is the penultimate set from the Ragas Live Festival 2024 that took place during 24 hours of continuous music at Pioneer Works October 19-20th in Red Hook, Brooklyn.   Debashish Bhattacharya Trio featuring the "world's greatest slide guitarist" Debashish Bhattacharya - Hindustani Slide Guitar and Pushpa Veena  Anandi Bhattacharya - Vocals Subashish Bhattacharya - Tabla Subscribe to hear the re...

Catching up with "the world's greatest slide guitarist" Debashish Bhattacharya and the amazing singer Anandi Bhattacharya before they take off for Ragas Live Festival 2024. 

As excitement builds for their performance this Fall at the Ragas Live Festival , we have a chat with Afghan superstars Homayoun Sakhi & Salar Nader. As the standard-bearers of Afghan traditional music, rubab master Homayoun Sakhi and tabla virtuoso Salar Nader carry the rich and varied legacy of classical compositions and folk melodies of this ancient Central Asian nation. At the heart of thi...