NYC Radio Live

Houmayoun Sakhi and Salar Nader at Ragas Live Festival 2024

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.  

Debashish Bhattacharya Trio at Ragas Live Festival

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
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In Conversation: Debashish Bhattacharya and Anandi Bhattacharya

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. 

In Conversation: Homayoun Sakhi & Salar Nader

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 carrythe 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 Afghanand Indian percussion draws out the musical parallels with Hindustani music, exploring the essence of Ragas and theprofound connection between two diverse yet harmonious traditions.These master musicians have perfected their art in the traditional ustâd-shâgird apprenticeship in the wake of theirfamilies’ flight from Afghanistan following the chaos of the Soviet invasion – Salar, disciple of the legendary Ustad ZakirHussain; and Homayoun, disciple of the revered Afghan Rubab maestro Ustad Mohammed Omar. Salar has touredextensively with NEA Jazz Master Stanley Clarke, appeared on Broadway with “The Kite Runner,” and together withHomayoun Sakhi took part in a series of recordings of the music of Afghanistan and Central Asia sponsored by Aga KhanMusic 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 powerfulreminder of the resilience and importance of preserving cultural heritage.www.salarnader.comwww.homayounsakhi.com

Michael Gordon

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.

Mark Stewart: Music is Your Birthright

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