NYC Radio Live

This live set is from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Flute Shashank- flute Akkarai Subhalakshmi - violin  Patri Satish Kumar - mridangam

This live set is form Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India Charumathi Raghuram - violin Anantha R. Krishnan -mridangam

This live set is from Kamardanga, West Bengal, India Parvathy Baul  - vocals, ekthara, duggi, nupur

This live set is from San Raphael, CA, USA Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri - Teentaal Tabla Solo (excerpt) Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri -  Tabla Suhail Yusuf Khan - Sarangi   Ali Akbar College of Music Tabla Ensemble Jim Santi Owen - Tabla, Morsing, Kanjira Nilan Chaudhuri - Tabla Rohan Krishnamurthy - Mridangam William Rossel - Tabla   Producer - Jim Santi Owen Sound Engineer - Neil Godbole     Filmed, Record...

This live set is from San Rafael, CA, USA Alam Khan  -sarod

This live set is from El Clavo, Venezuela Betsayda Machado - lead vocals and shakers Adrian "Ote" Gomez - vocals and culoe' puya Oscar Ruiz - vocals and shakers Nereida Machado - vocals, shakers and dancing Blanca Castillo - furruco Jose Gregorio Gomez - chorus and charrasca Asterio Betancourt - quinto and culoe' puya Nelson Gomez - pujao, cumaco, paila and dancing Youse Cardozo - conga, cumaco, p...

Live from San Fransisco SFJAZZ Center  This set was produced with the support of SFJAZZ Center  Zakir Hussain - tabla Rakesh Chaurasia - bansuri   Filmed at the SFJAZZ Center San Francisco, C

Live from B'nai Jeshurun NYC  This set from Andy Statman performed at B'nai Jeshurun NYC. Andy Statman  - clarinet, mandolin Jay Gandhi - bansuri David Ellenbogen - guitar Ehren Hanson -tabla  This set was produced with the support of B’nai Jeshurun   

Live from Rajasthan this set from Dhun Dhora performed in front of Merrangahr Fort was produced with the support of Jodhpur Riff.  Live video produced for Jodhpur RIFF by Oijo Media odhpur RIFF presents *Dhun Dhora* featuring the Dhol Drummers of Rajasthan Dayam Khan - harmonium, lead vocals Sardar Khan - Sindhi Sarangi, additional vocals Ghafoor Khan - khartal Chanan Khan - dhol Swaroop Khan - dh...

Ragas Live Festival is returning to WKCR 89.9 FM-NY on November 21st-22nd from 7pm-7pm.   The 9th annual festival will feature many legends of music from 13 cities from Mysore to Madagascar including Terry Riley, Zakir Hussain, Toumani Diabate and Bestayda Machado.  Full lineup at  www.ragaslive.org   Today we'll hear a highlight of Ragas Live Festival 2019.  Crossroads: Jay Gandhi & Yacouba Cisso...

This is the first podcast release of a set from Ragas Live Festival 2019.  The event was broadcast live on WKCR 89.9 FM-NY in front of an enthusiastic audience at Pioneer Works.   Saraswathi Ranganthan is performing the veena here and was joined by her Raghavan Sai on Mridangam.  In a spontaneous decision Swaminathan Selvganesh who had played an amazing set earlier in the evening sat in on the set...

Recored and broadcast live at the Ragas Live Festival 2017 from the Rubin Museum of Art, we hear the world premier of the new project:  Recalling the Valley.  Jay Gandhi (bansuri) and Max ZT's (hammered dulcimer) pay tribute to their world-renowned teachers, Shivkumar Sharma and Hariprasad Chaurasia.  With Ehren Hanson on tabla they will perform music inspired by their gurus’ beloved album, “Call...

The Coltrane Raga Tribute from Brooklyn Raga Massive has blowing some minds.  As they released their album, we hang with Sameer Gupta, the tabla upstart, drummer and musical director of the project.  We'll listen to a live performance from Pioneer Works. If you want to hear it all you’ll have to get the album ! . The all-star ensemble in the set we hear includes: Sameer Gupta – Drumset/Tabla, Bran...

I just learned of the passing of the great master Randy Weston, whose tall shadow hangs over all of us who love, Gnawa Music, African Music, jazz and the intersection of three.  He was a lovely person, eager to pass along the knowledge he'd gathered through an amazing life. I hope this podcast helps pass along some of his wisdom.  He was humble, sweet and present and we're lucky to have had him on...

We just learned of the passing of the legend McCoy Tyner, who changed the course of jazz piano.  Of course he's most well known for his work in John Coltrane's classic quartet, but he has an amazing body of work beyond that, his album Sama Layuca for a start.  Here's my 2011 interview that we conducted in the kitchen of the Blue Note.      

William Parker is a force in music and if you listen his words, he'll change your mind about what exactly the mystery of music might be. He will be performing this big double bill on March 4th: SOUNDS OF JUSTICE: SUN RA ARKESTRA AND WILLIAM PARKER'S INSIDE SONGS OF CURTIS MAYFIELD i  This is a celebration of 25 years of the Vision Festival. We had an amazing conversation until the batteries ran ou...

We have a live performance in studio with Zhou Benming of the Zhou Family Band.  Zhou Jingzhi, founder of the Zhou Family Band, used to play in the royal court of the Qing Dynasty. After dynastic China came to an end, later generations of the family made their living by playing at local ceremonies.  The band has become so popular that sometimes people have to book them two years in advance for a c...

In this episode we chat with Dorit Chrysler director of of the  NY Theramin society, who have a major event coming up at the Ambient Church .    Dorit Chrysler has been dubbed a superior wizard of the theremin. An Austrian-born, New York based composer and performer, Chrysler is the co-founder of the NY Theremin Society and has started the first international school for Theremin, KidCoolThereminSc...

A broadcast of the brilliant pianist made at his home in Brooklyn before he moved North.  

A great discussion with Knoel Scott, a multi instrumentalist and band leader who has played with with the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1979.  Recorded backstage at the Opus 1 Festival in Maryland.  We also hear his original composition, "Harlem Nocturne," featuring Marshall Allen.   Knoel will be back in town for this exciting show at the Town Hall on March 4th 2020 SUN RA ARKESTRA AND WILLIAM PARKER'S I...

Eric Thompson took up the guitar as a teenager in Palo Alto, California in the early 1960's, at a time when very few folk guitarists were playing more than basic rhythm guitar. Among his earliest bands were the Black Mountain Boys (with Jerry Garcia and David Nelson) and Mother McCree's Uptown Jug Champions. He quickly became nationally known as an exceptional lead flatpicker, winning the World Ch...

Michael Leonhart Orchestra (MLO) is a genre-crossing 15-piece ensemble that has been putting on electrifying shows for the last 2 years. The Orchestra performs both Leonhart’s original compositions as well as his arrangements of Wutang, Fela, Ellington, Zappa and Bernard Herrmann. MLO features players from bands such as Sharon Jones & the Dap-kings, the Mingus Big Band, Maria Schneider’s Orche...

On the heels of their highly successful event featuring Brooklyn Raga Massive, Alexandre Tannous and NYC Radio Live return to The Assemblage to continue their exploration of the power of sound, meditation and trance and with the Grammy nominated group Innov Gnawa this Thursday. Details for the event are here Alexandre Tannous, a composer, musician, ethnomusicologist and researcher came to WKCR to...

The great young carnatic Roopa Mahadevan, comes to WKCR to share a sneak preview of her upcoming album, Roopa in 6 Yards . As spontaneous and joyful as the singer herself, the album is refreshing and uncompromising exploration of a wide range of compositions from the Carnatic cannon.  With this recording Roopa is bound to expand the audience for this traditional music. 

While we begin to sift through the gold mine of multi-track recordings from 24 hour Ragas Live 2019.  We have one set that we happened to mix live on stage and are able to deliver right now. Unstruck Sound are an ambient group that explore the concept of the drone.  Set and Setting are 4am (about 9 hours into the fest.) Neel Murgai is Overtone vocals, Eric Fraser is on bansuri, Aaron Shregge is on...