NYC Radio Live

We get to hang with Albert Mazibuko an member of Ladysmith Black Mambazo for over 30 years.  Albert talks about his memories of times with Nelson Mandela, and how this angel music was both born in the mines and the land of dreams. The group plays B.B. Kings March 8th.

Blato Zlato kicked the doors down at this year's Golden Fest, the amazing annual Balkan festival in NYC featuring over 60 bands.  We got to talk backstage with Lou Carrig, Annalisa Kelly,Ruby Ross and check out selections from their new album Swamp Gold. Formed in 2015, the band performs folk and composed music from the Balkans and Eastern Europe, with a particular focus on Bulgarian songs and imp...

Hailing from Venezuela, Betsayda Machado & Parranda El Clavo made their New York debut at GlobalFest this week.  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-Ven...

Just before we left for Cuba to record for this podcast, Brooklyn Raga Massive's  Raga Cubana feat. Roman Diaz, had an intimate concert to get ready for our sold out concert a month later at the Rubin Museum of Art. Here we are trying new things and feeling the hometown energy and love from the Raga Massive Jam Session at the Art Cafe With Román Díaz (conductor, batá: iyá ) Giancarlo Luigi (sheker...

After three weeks of recording music in Cuba, we return with this special epsiode featuring a live performance from Groupo Folklorico 19 de Septiembre of Santiago de Cuba.  Guided by their lead Bata' drummer, Roberto Maikel Fuentes, we'll learn about 3 rhythms: Guanguanco', Tumba Francesa and Columbia.

The seventh set of the historic, Ragas Live Festival 2016, live at Pioneer Works. Neel Murgai (sitar), Sameer Gupta (tabla).  Neel and Sameer will be performing at the Raga Massive Concert and Jam Session at the Art Cafe (885 Pacific Street, Brooklyn) this Wednesday, Jan 4th 8pm. Neel is a multi-instrumental performer, composer and teacher in New York City. He graduated with an MFA in interdiscipl...

This is last minute post while I am in Cuba collecting great recordings for the all you listeners of the podcast!   A great performance from Dee Harris at Ragas live guitar..more to come.

The ninth set of the historic, Ragas Live Festival 2016, live at Pioneer Works.  Roopa Mahadevan (vocal) Anjna Swaminathan (violin), Bala Skandan (mridangam), Kabilan Jeginathan (kanjira). Roopa Mahadevan is a versatile vocalist rooted in the South Indian (Carnatic) classical tradition.  Born and raised in San Jose, California, Roopa underwent her major formative training in Carnatic vocal music i...

We hang out with Olivier Conan, the band leader of Chicha Libre, and the owner of Brooklyn's most beloved listening room, Barbes.  We'll hear some of the smoking tracks from his group and his Barbes Records label and get his take on what's happening in the world. Barbes will be hosting a free and open event this Sunday about the general state of the union entitled  What Now? Post Election Gatherin...

  As NYC and the world woke up to the results of an election, we gathered, as always, on Wednesday night, our inclusive, diverse music scene taking on a new meaning.    Tomchess and his quartet rose to the occasion and captured the moment with stunning soulful maquam based compositions informed by the free jazz improvisations of of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.  Hear the beauty and the promis...

The fourth set of the historic, Ragas Live Festival 2016, live at Pioneer Works.  Dan Weiss (Drumset) and Michael Gam (bass). Weiss has been studying tabla and Indian classical music with his Guru (teacher) Samir Chatterjee since 1998. With his Tintal Drum set Solo,  Dan takes the concept of a traditional Indian tabla solo and migrates it to a conventional drum set. When listening to Tintal Drum s...

This was an amazing experience. We got to hang in the studio with two legends of Afro-Cuban Jazz: Bobby Carcassés and Arturo O'Farrill! After the two recorded an improvised set we got to sit down and talk music. We also get to hear some music from Bobby's record celebrating his 50 years of creating music in Havana and NYC: 50 TH Aniversario, De La Habana A Nueva York.   ARTURO O’FARRILL, pianist,...

  This was an amazing experience!  We sit down with one of the great families of rhythm for a live performance and interview.  TH Vikku Vanyakram and family will be back in NYC, starting Oct. 24th teaching an incredible workshop on rhythm.   Recorded at the East Indian Music Academy, this is a legendary lineup: TH Vikku Vanyakram,  Uma Shankar -ghatam Selva Ganesh, Swaminathan - khanjira, konnakol...

This was a real incredible experience.  We got sit down and hang with Vieux Farka Toure, talk to him and record a little acoustic music...AND record his entire live set at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan with his smoking band!  Many thanks to World Music Institute and Le Poisson Rouge for making this happen.  This podcast will air on WKCR 89.9 FM-NY at 11pm Sunday Oct 2nd and stream and www.wkcr.org...

  Vocalists Sattar Khan Langa, Manjoor Khan Manganiyar  join us at WKCR for a live in-studio set.  The music from this region is recognized around the world for its virtuosity and beauty.  The chance to see and hear real live Rajasthani folk music is really rare and these guys really blew us away.

The eighth set of the historic, Ragas Live Festival 2016, live at Pioneer Works.  Vivek Pandya (tabla), Kalpit Pandya (harmonium). This 11 year old tabla prodigy is a disciple of Pt Anindo Chatterjee, and he was 1st place winner of the Swaradhara competition held on 23rd Feb 2013. As you can hear and se from his performance, he has a bright, musical future ahead of him. Ragas Live Festival 2016 is...

  Their first time playing together, Max ZT (Hammered Dulcimer) Karsh  Kale (tabla) and Kane Mathis (kora) played an amazing set from 3am-4am on the Ragas Live Festival 2015.  

  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.  

The thrid set of the historic, Ragas Live Festival 2016, live at Pioneer Works. Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Sameer Gupta (tabla), Perry Wortman (bass). The Arun Ramamurthy Trio (ART) performs Jazz Carnatica. Rooted in the style of the virtuoso violinist Dr. Mysore Manjunath, Arun brings a fresh approach to the age-old South Indian classical repertoire. The trio’s collaborative sound is driven by the...

In 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...

The second set of the historic, Ragas Live Festival 2016, live at Pioneer Works.  Akshara (lit. imperishable, immutable, inalterable) is comprised of: Bala Skandan (mridangam), Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Trina Basu (violin), Jay Gandhi (bansuri), Kabilan Jeginathan (kanjira), Max ZT (dulcimer), Shivalik Ghoshal (tabla). Akshara is an exciting dynamic percussion group rooted in Indian classical musi...

The blazing first set of the historic, Ragas Live Festival 2016, live at Pioneer Works.  Comprising of members of Brooklyn Raga Massive - Neel Murgai (sitar), Sameer Gupta (tabla), Arun Ramamurthy (violin), Eric Fraser (bansuri), Trina Basu (violin), Michael Gam (bass), Samarth Nagarkar (vocal) - the Ravi Shankar Tribute ensemble inaugurates the Brooklyn Ragas live festival by playing several of P...

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...