NYC Radio Live

We get to hang out with Ilusha and listen to selections from his new album, Yes & No.   Singer and guitarist Ilusha Tsinadze was born in Soviet-era Georgia and emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 8. Yes & No is a musical conversation between the contemporary sounds of Brooklyn and the traditional music his family left behind in Georgia. Ilusha has become recognized for his distinct interpretations...

While out in Bombay, we visit the author Namita Devidayal, whose compelling new biography, The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan shines new light on the maestro's genius.  Namita, author of The Music Room, speaks about this poetic new work and reflects on both dark and light sides of her subject.  

We hang out with one of the greatest drummers of his generation, Eric Harland!  We chat about what he's learned form the  many great musicians he's played with, philosophy, meditation, his own journey and generally get into it. Eric will be coming to town with Zakir Hussain and the Masters of Percussion April 24 at the Town Hall...  

n a stunning display of North and West African fusion, El Foukr R’Assembly, a group traveling all the way from Algeria performs live on WKCR.  The musicians from Algeria, Burkina Faso and Ghana come together for two explosive sets of music A taxi-driver & a farmer, a graphic designer, a sound engineer and an art-major student, Oualid Khelifi as the producer and filmmaker had met them lin 2014 at v...

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)

Hailing from Venezuela, Betsayda Machado & Parranda El Clavo made their New York debut at  GlobalFest   last year. The group’s electrifying live set, complete with pitch perfect harmonies, dazzling dancers, and irresistible rhythms earned them legions of new fans and a feature in the next days’s New York Times. We sat down with Betsayda with her manager Juan Souki and learned more about the Afro-V...

Before their premier of an exciting new work Nature/War/Love we hang out with Karou Wantanabe, Parul Shah and Sameer Gupta.  We also check out slections from Karou Wantanabe's latest album Néo . In Nature/War/Love Shinobue flute and taiko drum virtuoso Kaoru Watanabe, known for his work on Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and hybrid Indian classical tabla and modern j...

Debashish Bhattacharya is simply one of the greatest guitarists walking the earth.  The slide guitar master will be performing at GlobalFest this year, and we give a preview of what to expect, revisiting a  Hurricane Sandy Benefit Concert Debashish performed in NYC in 2012 with his daughter Anandi and brother Subashish. 

Seven-time Grammy® winner Paul Winter has a body of work that chronicles his wide-ranging experiences in the musical traditions and natural environments of the Earth.  The saxophonist, composer and bandleader founded Living Music as the recording context for his ensemble, the Paul Winter Consort, and his community of colleagues, which includes some of the world’s finest jazz, world, and classical...

Here's our first recording from Ragas Live Festival 2018! A beautiful set from 11pm to midnight from Anirban Dasgupta (sarod), Mir Naqibul Islam (tabla).   Anirban is the youngest son and disciple of Pt. Buddhadev Dasgupta. Needless to mention, he grew up with the very best ambience of Indian Classical music, with his older sibling, Bhavani Shankar also following his father’s footsteps. Not to be...

We hang with the great Turkish musician Ozan Aksoy. He performs live on Ney and Saz and we  check out tracks from his new album entitled, Ozan.   The New York City based musician Ozan Aksoy’s destiny was set with his birth name - Ozan - an ancient title for mystical bards in West Asia. As a child growing up in Turkey, he first learned to play the saz (lute) from his father, and soon demonstrated r...

A freewheeling interview with Zakir Hussain, widely hailed as one of the global percussionists of our time. This was recorded in November of 2018.  We later chatted in 2020 and the maestro performed on our Ragas Live Festival both also available on this podcast.    Zakir Hussain, who first made a name for himself accompanying legends such as Ustad Ali Akbar Khan,  avi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan,...

One of the world’s foremost tabla players, Subhasis Bhattacharya has performed and recorded with his brother Debashish on many classic albums including the Grammy nominated Calcutta Chronicles. On Tablananda, his first international collaboration, Subhasis assembles an incredible line-up of musicians to produce a visionary album that showcases his incredible creativity.

We hang out with the great dancer and innovator Misa Kelly who is in town for the Collaborations in Dance Festival at Triskelion Arts.    Misa is passionate about community building. Her innovative program designs and organizational efforts have helped over 1,000 artists over the past 20 years. Kelly is a groundbreaker and innovator. As SonneBlauma Danscz Theatre her company was the first in her c...

In this podcast we pay tribute to the great musician and educator Madeleine Yayodele Nelson. Joining us in the studio were her friends and bandmates Caren Calder and  Marsha Perry-Starks as well as Olumide, Dana Hanchard, Giancarlo Luiggi and Babatunde Don Eaton.  Madeleine was , a composer, arranger, vocalist, percussionist, teacher, and instrument maker as well as the founder and artistic direct...

Deepal Chodhari (santoor), Shiva Ghoshal (tabla) play a 5am set at Ragas Live Festival 2016 at Pioneer Works.

Here we revist a 2011 interview with the master percussionist and luminary Adam Rudolph.  Adam wil be bringing his Go:Organic Orchestra to collaborate with the Brooklyn Raga Massive this Friday July 27th 2017.  http://rma.cm/2nq   He'll be live with David Ellenbogen on WKCR 89.9 FM-NY this Tuesday from 12pm-3pm. www.wkcr.org   

The Book of J, Jeremiah Lockwood and Jewlia Eisenberg, stopped by the apartment for a beautiful  acoustic set. They perform music from all over the world to and our celebrating their new album and their month long residency at Barbes .     Jewlia Eisenberg works at the intersection of voice, text and diaspora consciousness, primarily as the leader of the ensemble Charming Hostess. Her music is mos...

Recorded last just last night in the Mercy Home chapel we feature a live tabla solo performance and interview with Pt. Nayan Ghosh.  This was produced by Brooklyn Raga Massive and the maestro was joined by Ishaan Ghosh (tabla) and Rohan Prabhudesai (Harmonium).   Jump to the 1hr16 mark to hear our great conversation.      

Mauritania’s greatest singer, Noura Mint Seymali and her husband/guitarist, Jeiche Ould Chighaly performed live in studio with two members of the Brooklyn Raga Massive,  Jay Gandhi (bansuri flute) and Ehren Hanson (Tabla).  They met at the ASAMAAN Festival of Music & Astronomy in the Gorée Island – Dakar, Sénégal on April 2013 but had never performed together until this day. We're rebroadcasting t...

We get to have a great hang with Ezra Gale of Molly Tigray! Molly Tigre marries the rhythms and melodies of African music– especially the entrancing styles from Ethiopia and Mali- with a uniquely progressive and exploratory jazz sound. Featuring the compositions of saxophonist Mitch Marcus (Donovan, Dave Dreiwitz) and bassist Ezra Gale (Super Hi-Fi, Aphrodesia), the band also features saxophonist...

We get to hang with the great New York saxophonist Arun Luthra.  He's got a show coming up with his Konokol jazz project this Friday at Flushing Town Hall.   Arun Luthra is one of the premier saxophonists and composers on New York’s jazz scene, and is one of the small group of American jazz musicians of Indian heritage who have continued to explore to possibilities of fusing the modern post-bop so...

We get to have a conversation with the great singer and songwriter Martha Redbone.  She'll be collaborating this Friday April 13, 2018 with Brooklyn Raga Massive, as part of the Outside (In)dia Series produced by India Center Foundation, Brooklyn Raga Massive and Lincoln Center.  

Saxophonist Aakash Mittal draws his inspiration from a plethora of sources.  We sit down and talk with him in anticiaption of Aawaz trio show March 11 at National Sawdust .  We'll also hear his live set from 2017s Ragas Live Festival at Rubin Museum of Art with Rez Abassi on Guitar and Alex Ritz on Drums.

An intimate conversation with Randy Weston at his home in Brooklyn in 2010.  The master jazz musician tells tales of his times with Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Fela Kuti and countless legends.  Among many accomplishments, Mr. Weston is responsible for bringing gnawa music to a much larger audience, so we thought we'd share this interview before we host Innov Gnawa at a concert at the Mercy Home in...