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 this musical odyssey lie the enchanting sounds of the rubab, Afghanistan's revered 21-stringed lute, renowned for its hauntingly soulful timbre. Accompanied by the tabla's rhythmic pulse, Salar's innovative fusion of Afghan and Indian percussion draws out the musical parallels with Hindustani music, exploring the essence of Ragas and the profound connection between two diverse yet harmonious traditions. These master musicians have perfected their art in the traditional ustâd-shâgird apprenticeship in the wake of their families’ flight from Afghanistan following the chaos of the Soviet invasion – Salar, disciple of the legendary Ustad Zakir Hussain; and Homayoun, disciple of the revered Afghan Rubab maestro Ustad Mohammed Omar. Salar has toured extensively with NEA Jazz Master Stanley Clarke, appeared on Broadway with “The Kite Runner,” and together with Homayoun Sakhi took part in a series of recordings of the music of Afghanistan and Central Asia sponsored by Aga Khan Music Initiative for the Smithsonian Folkways label. In a time when music has been banned in Afghanistan, the music of these master musicians serves as a powerful reminder of the resilience and importance of preserving cultural heritage. www.salarnader.com www.homayounsakhi.com

We get to hang with Michael Gordon, the prolific composer, co-founder/co-artistic director of Bang on a Can! 

Michael Gordon’s music merges subtle rhythmic invention with incredible power embodying, in the words of The New Yorker‘s Alex Ross, “the fury of punk rock, the nervous brilliance of free jazz and the intransigence of classical modernism.” Over the course of his composing career, Gordon has produced a strikingly diverse body of work, ranging from large-scale pieces for high-energy ensembles to major orchestral commissions to works conceived specifically for the recording studio. Transcending categorization, this music represents the collision of mysterious introspection and brutal directness.

In anticipation of the Ragas Live Festival 2023 coming October 14-15 to Pioneer Works, we will be broadcasting this amazing set from 2022 featuring Kane Mathis on Kora and Roshni Samlal on Tabla.  Kane Mathis, a man of many talents, also mixed and mastered this and all the recordings from Ragas Live Festival 2022.    The radio broadcast will be at WKCR 89.9 FM-NY (www.wkcr.org) at 7PM on August 6, or you can enjoy here on the NYC Radio Live Podcast.   Tix and info for Ragas Live Festival are available at www.ragaslive.com You can also watch a video of this performance on YouTube here.

In anticipation of the Ragas Live Festival 2023 coming October 14-15 to Pioneer Works, we will be broadcasting this amazing set from 2022 featuring Saraswathi Ranganathan on veena and Sriram Raman on Mridangam The radio broadcast will be at WKCR 89.9 FM-NY (www.wkcr.org) at 7PM on August 6, or you can enjoy here on the NYC Radio Live Podcast.   Tix and info for Ragas Live Festival are available at www.ragaslive.com You can also watch a video of this performance on YouTube here.

 

We connect with Musekiwa Chingdoza from Zimbabwe for the Ragas Live Festival 

Bansuri maestro Eric Fraser with Mir Naqibol Islam on tabla at the 2021 Ragas Live Festival.

 

 

Hamid Al-Saadi with Safaafir

Hamid Al-Saadi - vocal Amir ElSaffar - santur and vocal Dena El Saffar - joza, violin, and vocal Tim Moore - percussion George Ziadeh - oud Zahra Zubaidi - vocal Zahra Ali - vocal Omar Dewachi 

 

Subscribe to NYC Radio Live to enjoy the full festival.

An interview with Parvathy Baul, conducted by David Ellenbogen, produced with the support of SACSA. for the Ragas Live Festival

Parvathy Baul is a practitioner, performer and teacher of the Baul tradition from Bengal, India. She is also an instrumentalist, storyteller and painter.

 

She has performed in over forty countries, including such prestigious concert halls and music festivals as the Noh Theater in Kyoto, the World Music Center in New York City, Melbourne Arts Center and the Festival of World Sacred Music in Fez, Morocco.

 

She has also collaborated with world’s leading theater director Eugenio Barba.

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She visits several dance, theatre and music institutions across the globe in the capacity of a teacher.  

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The depth of her mesmerising performance is rooted in her deep spiritual practice.

It is described by critics as “riveting” and “spellbinding.” 

 

Parvathy’s performance work emerges from a long lineage of master Baul singers, dancers, and spiritual teachers.

She studied closely with two of the most respected Baul singer-gurus of the previous generation, Sri Sanatan Das Thakur Baul and Sri Shashanko Goshai.

 

She was recognized by her gurus as both a musical and spiritual teacher in the Baul tradition, carrying forward their spiritual legacy. 

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Parvathy has co-founded Ekathara Kalari along with Sri Ravi Gopalan Nair, a non-profit institution promoting ancient Indian spiritual traditions, with an emphasis on Baul arts and practice. 

 

As per her Guru Sri Sanatan Das Baul’s vision, she has established Sanatan Siddhashram, a traditional learning center for the Baul tradition in Birbhum district, West Bengal, India.

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Recognising her unbroken commitment to the tradition, the government of India conferred upon her the most esteemed Sangeet Natak Akademi award in the year 2019. It is the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists.

She was felicitated by honorable President Sri Ramnath Kovind.

The opening set of the Ragas Live Festival 2021.  Subscribe for weekly updates with the following 24 sets...

This first live set is from Ragas Live 2020 Cape Town, South Africa

Derek Gripper - Guitar

Second live set is from Ragas Live 2020 Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Dr. Toumani Diabate - kora

Ahmed Diabate - kora

Balla Diabate - kora

This live set is from Ragas Live 2020 Rubin Museum of Art

Arun Ramamurthy - violin

Jay Gandhi - bansuri

Vivek Pandya - tabla

Kavichelvan Srinivasaragavan - mridangam

This live set is from Ragas Live 2020

Mangily, Madagascar

Monika Njava: voice, percussion

Teta: guitar, voice

Jean Piso: accordion, voice

We hang with the great multi-instrumentalist, singer, song leader, composer and instrument designer Mark Stewart!   I'd been dreaming of doing this interview for years, and the upcoming Bang on a Can LOUD Festival (August 1-4 at Mass MoCA) was the perfect catalyst to make this finally happen.   As musical director for Paul Simon’s band, he has recorded and toured with Simon since 1998.  A founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the duo Polygraph Lounge with keyboard & theremin wizard Rob Schwimmer, Mark has also worked with Steve Reich, Sting, Anthony Braxton, Bob Dylan, Wynton Marsalis, Meredith Monk, Stevie Wonder, Phillip Glass, Iva Bittova, Bruce Springsteen, Terry Riley, Ornette Coleman, Edie Brickell, Don Byron, Joan Baez, Hugh Masakela, Paul McCartney, Cecil Taylor, Bill Frisell, Jimmy Cliff, Charles Wourinen, the Everly Brothers, Steve Gadd, Fred Frith, Alison Krauss, David Krakauer & Klezmer Madness, Bobby McFerrin, David Byrne, James Taylor, The Roches, Aaron Neville, Bette Midler, and Marc Ribot. He has worked extensively with composer Elliot Goldenthal on music for the films The Glorias, Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Across the Universe, Titus, The Butcher Boy, The Good Thief, In Dreams and Heat. He has designed instruments for Julie Taymor’s Midsummer Nights Dream & Theater For A New Audience’s production of King Lear. He is the inventor of the WhirlyCopter, a bicycle-powered Pythagorean choir of singing tubes and the Big Boing, a 24 ft. sonic banquet table Mbira that seats 30 children playing 490 found objects, and he is a Visiting Lecturer in musical instrument design & performance practice at MIT. Mark is also a curator at MASS MoCA of the immersive Gunnar Schonbeck exhibit of musical instruments and co-founder of SoundstewArt, a company that designs immersive sound environments & community music making experiences. Since 2012, he has been the Artistic Director of Guitar Mash, leading the participatory communal Urban Campfires together with renowned artists sharing their favorite songs and life stories. Mark can be heard on Blue Note, Warner Bros., Sony, Sony Classical, Point/Polygram, Nonesuch, Label Bleu, Resonance Magnetique, Cantaloupe and CRI recordings. He lives in Brooklyn, NY & North Adams, MA, playing, singing & writing popular music, semi-popular music and unpopular music, whilst designing instruments that everyone can play.Mark Stewart! Mark has  The LOUD weekend is coming up at Mass MoCA August 1st, providing a great excuse to speak 

This live set is from Ragas Live 2020 Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal

Prince Nepali - sarangi

Vibha Saran Nepali - tabla

This live set is from Ragas Live Festival 2020

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Vikku Vinayakaram  - ghatam

V. Selvaganesh  - drum kit

Swaminathan - Kanjira, konnokol

This live set is from Ragas Live 2020 Mysore, Karnataka, India.

Mysore Nagaraj - violin

Mysore Karthik - violin

Tumkur Ravishankar - mridangam

This live set is from Ragas Live Festival 2020 Pioneer Works Brooklyn, NY

Abhik Mukherjee - sitar

Samarth Nagarkar - vocals 

Dibyarka Chatterjee - tabla

Live set from Ragas Live 2020 

Pioneer Works  Brooklyn, NYC, USA

Roopa Mahadevan - vocal

Arun Ramamurthy - violin

Kavichelvan Srinivasaragavan - mridangam

Live from Rajasthan this set from Womanly Voices performed in front of Merrangahr Fort was produced with the support of Jodhpur Riff. 

Live video produced for Jodhpur RIFF by Oijo Media

Jodhpur RIFF presents

Womanly Voices

Sumitra Devi - vocals, harmonium

Ganga & Sundar - vocals

Mohini Devi - vocals

Susheela - khartal, manjira

Shyam Rao - manjira

Asin Khan - sindhi sarangi, additional vocals

Sadik Khan - dholak

Location - Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

This live set is from New Delhi , India

 Gaurav Mazumdar -Sitar

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

Ragas Live Festival 2023 opened with this stunning sitar set from Gaurav Mazumdar—legendary disciple of Pt. Ravi Shankar—accompanied by Umesh Banerjee on the tabla. 8PM Set of the 24 Hour Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works 10.14.23 Ragas Live Festival is produced by Pioneer Works in collaboration with NYC Radio Live, Brooklyn Raga Massive and the Society for Arts and Culture of South Asia. We’re pleased to announce Ragas Live Festival will return to Pioneer Works on October 19–20, 2024: http://www.ragaslive.com

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, Recorded, Mixed, and Mastered at Airship Laboratories, Richmond, CA

Jim Santi Owen Music - All RIghts Reserved

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, paila and culoe' puya

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 - dhol, dholak

Sattar Khan - dhol-cheep

Pyaru Khan - dhol-cheep

Location - Mehrangarh Fort, Jodhpur

©JodhpurRIFF 2020. All Rights Reserved

Director - Divya Bhatia, Festival Director Jodhpur RIFF

Video Producer - Kavi Bhansali

Sound - Kavi Bhansali/ Raghav Suthaud

Production Supervisor - Govind Ram Singh

Production Assist - Bhawani Singh

Editor -Vikash Gupta

Special Thanks to the Mehrangarh Museum Trust, Jodhpur

©JodhpurRIFF 2020. All Rights Reserved

info@jodhpurriff.org

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 Cissoko with Jay Gandhi (bansuri), Yacouba Cissoko (kora), David Ellenbogen (guitar) and Ehren Hanson (tabla).

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.

Ragas Live Festival is a 24 hour annual broadcast with over 60 musicians.  We will return in 2020 - stay tuned!

 

 

Saraswathi brings with her a legacy of firsts. She is the first Indian woman and Veena artiste to win a Chicago Music Award in its 35-year history, the first Veena artiste to perform as an orchestra member of Disney’s Jungle Book production and the first Veena artiste to receive a $10,000 grant from the Logan Foundation in Chicago. She attributes her path-carving success to the inclusive energy in her music and in her life. Her goal? Bring artists and listeners together as one community united in music and understanding. – worded by Stephanie Jones, Jazzspeak.org

Saraswathi constantly endeavors for sounds of the Veena to reach a cross cultural global audience. She learned Veena from her mother Shantha Ranganathan and from Karnataka Kalashree EP Alamelu in Bangalore.  She has been performing and teaching for over three decades now.

Saraswathi also has the distinction as being the first Veena artiste whose original multi-lingual song “Ennai Azhaithaen – I embraced me” was commissioned by the Chicago Humanities Fest.

Saraswathi is the first Veena artiste to perform live music for Chicago International Moves & Music Fest with original score for screening of the movie Buster Keaton’s Seven Chances. 

 

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 of the Valley.”  

They also have a great discussion with Andrew Shantz on the topic of creating art away from its place of origin.  

Ragas Live Festival supported by the Rubin Museum of Art, WKCR and Humanities New York.  

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, Brandee Younger – Harp, Jay Gandhi – Bansuri, Arun Ramamurthy – Violin, Pawan Benjamin – Sax, Trina Basu – Violin, Neel Murgai – Sitar, Ben Tyree – Guitar, Rashaan Carter – Bass Michael Gam – Bass

Special Guests:

Roopa Mahadevan – Vocal

Pyeng Threadgill- vocal

Anupam Shobhakar – Sarod Jessica Lurie – Sax Ken Shoji- Violin Dawoud Kringle – Dilruba Giancarlo Luigi – Chekere and Percussion

Recorded by James Clark and mixed by Sameer Gupta

This was an incredible opportunity to sit down with a living legend: Reggie Workman!!!

In 1961, Workman joined the John Coltrane Quartet, replacing Steve Davis. He was present for the saxophonist's Live at the Village Vanguard sessions, and also recorded with a second bassist (Art Davis) on the 1961 albums, Olé Coltrane and Africa/Brass. Workman recorded frequently through the 1960s and performed with such icons as Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Thelonious Monk, Max Roach, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Eric Dolphy, Gigi Gryce, Booker Little, Roy Haynes, Wayne Shorter, Red Garland, James Moody, Abbey Lincoln, Alice Coltrane, Booker Ervin, Horace Silver, Benny Golson, Cedar Walton, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Curtis Fuller, Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Mann, Archie Shepp, Clifford Jordan, Bobby Hutcherson, Sonny Fortune, Billy Harper, and David Murray.

 

This episode was originally broadcast in 2019 in support of the "A Love Supreme with Reggie Workman" performance as part of the Wall to Wall: John Coltrane Event.  

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 the planet for 91 years.

 

 

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 MAYFIELDi 

This is a celebration of 25 years of the Vision Festival.

We had an amazing conversation until the batteries ran out on my recorder...enjoy!

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 ceremony. Now more than 100 members of the Zhou family and over 1000 students are active in playing at rituals in their hometown and the adjacent areas.

The band plays traditional wind and percussion music that has accompanied the birth and death of people in central-eastern China for more than 600 years. Coming from Lingbi, Anhui Province, part of the Central Plain area which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization, the Zhou Family Band have been musicians for seven generations, and are bearers of a tradition that represents the cream of Chinese folk music – Bolin Laba, a national intangible cultural heritage of China.

 

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, KidCoolThereminSchool and L’Ecole Theremine with branches in NY and Paris. As much as the Theremin is a tool in Chrysler’s electronic instrument arsenal, she is also one of the most visible Thereminists spreading the gospel of this mysterious sounding instrument. Most recently she finished her analog soundtrack for a remake of “M” by Fritz Lang and was featured on the soundtrack of the HBO documentary "Going Clear". Chrysler received her master's degree of musicology in Vienna and has notably collaborated with Anders Trentemøller, Cluster, Adult., CERN, Carsten Nicolai, Elliot Sharp and Laurie Spiegel. She has performed with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, had her work commissioned by MoMA and the Venice Biennale, and is the founder of “Dame Electric,” a festival dedicated to female pioneers in Analog Music. As the director of the NY Theremin Society, Chrysler is promoting the application of theremin in different art disciplines and is produced the THEREMIN100 compilation release, commemorating the 100th birthday of the Theremin in 2020.  For Ambient Church, Chrysler will perform original work along with the US premiere of "A Paraphrase." Composed by electronic music pioneer Laurie Spiegel, for Dorit Chrysler, "A Paraphrase" was inspired by a young Clara Rockmore and her professional relationship with Léon Theremin.  Lana Anikin Suran will accompany on piano. 

 

 

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 INSIDE SONGS OF CURTIS MAYFIELD

   

 

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 Championship Cup at Union Grove, North Carolina with the New York Ramblers (which also included David Grisman and Winnie Winston) and flying to Nashville, Tennessee to record "Beatle Country" with the Charles River Valley Boys (reissued on Rounder).

During the 1970's, Eric continued to play old-time music. He also took up the tenor banjo, organized the Graineog Celidh Band around two master musicians from County Clare, Joe Cooley and Kevin Keegan, and spent six months in the west of Ireland, visiting and learning from older traditional musicians there.

 

Eric will be playing a private concert with Andy Statman on Sunday December 15th at 2pm in Brooklyn (Near Prospect Park)  Email ericandandysi@gmail.com for info and reservations.

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 Orchestra, the Tonight Show Band (Roots) and other soloists from the NY/Brooklyn jazz/soul/studio scene.

The MLO residence at at the Jazz Standard has a very special show coming up this Tuesday, December 10th... a live recording which will be broadcast on New Years Eve on NPR/WBGO.   Tickets and Info are here 

Grammy winning Michael Leonhart is sought throughout the music and entertainment world as a trumpeter, composer, producer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. He has collaborated with artists as diverse as James Brown & Wutang Clan to Meryl Streep & Isaac Mizrahi.

As a trumpeter, Michael performed on Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’  record breaking smash hit “Uptown Funk,” which won the 2016 Record of the year Grammy. He has performed with rock legends Steely Dan since 1996, recording two albums with them, including 2000's 4x Grammy winning Album of the Year "Two Against Nature.”

Michael has composed music for stage and screen, including writing a song for and directing Meryl Streep on the Decca soundtrack album “Songs of Lahore.” Leonhart recently composed music for the score to Rockstar Games upcoming “Red Dead Redemption 2.”

Michael’s eighth solo album, the genre-crossing “Painted Lady Suite,” by the Michael Leonhart Orchestra (MLO), will be released June 15th on Sunnyside Records. The orchestra performs both Leonhart’s original compositions as well as his arrangements of Wu Tang, Ellington and more, featuring players from bands such as Sharon Jones & the Dap-kings, the Mingus Big Band and The Roots.

 

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 speak about Gnawa music and trance to get us ready for the event.    

Alexandre Tannous has performed a variety of musical styles including classical, jazz, rock, and non-Western music on various instruments. His ethnomusicological research investigates issues of acculturation, community, musical identity in an urban setting, and the concepts of talent, charisma, and leadership in music. For the past 13 years he has been researching the therapeutic and esoteric properties of sound from three different perspectives – Western scientific, Eastern philosophical, and shamanic societal beliefs – to gain a deeper understanding of how, and to what extent, sound has been used to affect human consciousness. This search has led him to where art, science, philosophy, and spirituality intersect. Inspired by his findings, he designed a protocol of an integrated experience he calls “Sound Meditation” in which he shares the findings from his research, raising an awareness to how a specifically designed sound can have the ability to help us to disconnect from habitual patterns while judiciously listening to the specific traditional instruments he plays. 

We hang with the legendary bassist of the Meters at his home in New Orleans! 

George Porter Jr. founded The Meters in 1965 alongside Art Neville, Leo Nocentelli and Joseph Zigaboo Modeliste. Known as one of the progenitors of funk with Sly & The Family Stone and Parliament Funkadelic, The Meters carved their own place in history with syncopated polyrhythms and grooves inherited from New Orleans’ deep African musical roots. Porter’s heavy pockets and fat notes created the rubbery bass lines behind anthems like “Cissy Strut” off the group’s self-titled 1969 debut — The Meters’ greatest commercial single that reached No. 4 on the R&B chart and No. 23 on the Billboard Hot 100. 

The Meters became the house band for Allen Toussaint’s recording label and studio in New Orleans, backing records for Dr. John, Paul McCartney, Lee Dorsey, Earl King, Robert Palmer and Patty Labelle’s No. 1 hit, “Lady Marmalade”.

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 Shakuhachi and Dragon Mouth Trumpet and David Ellenbogen is on lap steel guitar and electronics. 23 more hours are on their way!

 

 

 

A great discussion, originally broadcast live on WKCR, with Soles of Duende, Amanda Castro, Arielle Rosales and Brindha Guha.   They'll be preforming with Frank Malloy IV & Roshni Samlal at the Ragas Live Festival at 11pm.  

 

Birthed in East Harlem, the women of Soles arrived with a single, transparent question: how do they find truth, connection, and storytelling through the rhythms of their respective cultures? Based in the rhythms of Tap (Amanda Castro), Flamenco (Arielle Rosales) and Kathak (Brinda Guha), their mission created the fire that is Soles of Duende. They devote their work together to yield nothing but joy and music, and to bring clarity to how they connect given their beautiful differences. 

A chat with Lucibela the great singer from Capo Verde who is bringing her countries music to the US right now with a 14 state tour.