NYC Radio Live

Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure – Podcast 240

Here’s a great one from the archives! A beautiful live performance and discussion with Abdoulaye Alhassane Tourewith Deep Sahara at WKCR in 2010.  w/ Yacouba Diabate (Kora) Frederika Krier (Violin) and David Ellenbogen (guitar).  Abdoulaye is a guitarist and singer from Gao, Mali with roots in Northern Mali and Niger.  He brings all these regional sounds of this diverse part of the world into his music.  He also absorbed American Jazz and Blues…you’ll hear it all.
More about Abdoulaye:
By Banning Eyre | April, 2007 [guitar player mg]
Abdoulaye Alhassane Toure has brought string-picking wizardry from the desert towns of West Africa to the nightclubs of New York City. Born in 1963, in Niamey, Niger, to a Sonrai family from Gao, Mali, he passed his youth in a multi-ethnic neighborhood surrounded by Peul, Bambara, Sonrai, and other peoples, and as he put it, “They all played music.” Local radio filled his ears with the sinuous, bluesy strains of desert folklore and the melodious bombast of Mande griots. When his parents returned to Mali, Toure recalled, “They came back with cassettes by Ibrahim Hamma Dicko, Fissa Maiga, and Ali Farka Toure, who sang in a language we understood, and I was incredibly inspired by the originality of this music.” Toure’s musical gift became obvious when he started hanging out in the Niamey nightclub where his uncle, Johnny Ali Maiga, led a band.
“Johnny Ali Maiga played folklore, like Ali Farka Toure,” said Toure, “But he also loved rock. His group was on the radio in Niamey, and it sounded like the Malian music I was listening to at home, but sung in Zerma, the national language of Niger.”
By the early ’80s, Toure was playing guitar and flute, and his first band incorporated electric guitar, bass, drums, and brass, and merged regional folk styles with international pop. When the group took first prize in a national competition, Toure became a full-time musician. By the late ’80s, he was leading Super Kassey—the first Niamey band to travel abroad and record in a modern studio.
Before long, Toure was working as a guitar instructor at the European-run Center for the Education and Promotion of Music. In 1992, Toure teamed up with singer/flutist Yacouba Moumouni to create Niger’s most successful roots pop band to date, Mamar Kassey. Mamar Kassey’s two electrifying CDs, Denke Denke (1999) and Alatoumi (2000) showcase Toure’s guitar mastery and formidable arranging skills. The music is rooted in tradition, but molded into brisk arrangements that include key modulations and bursts of solo improvisation.
“Improvisation existed in Sonrai music,” explained Toure, “but in another form. In our ceremonies, there’s an original melody that is played by the kurbu [a 3-stringed lute]. When the energy rises between the players and the dancers, the kurbu player leaves his melody, and follows his heart. But if you tell that kurbu player to work with a modern group and ‘improvise,’ you have to explain to him what it means.”
Mamar Kassey’s travels eventually brought Toure to New York City, where he now lives and performs with his current band, Deep Sahara. Toure can cradle an acoustic guitar and fingerpick his way through desert trance grooves, and he can also take up a flatpick, and wail on electric—edging desert folklore into the realm of blues and rock. One day, he plans to return to Niger to set up a studio and form an international touring band. For now, Toure is merely one of the most riveting African guitarists to be found in the United States.
 

Music from the Sacred Music Festival of Bogota

Jean-Claude van Itallie Podcast 236

Jean-Claude van Itallie, is a creative force across many genres.  Norman Mailer called one his works "possibly the best one-act play I have ever seen.” He's a poet, meditator, health-guru, translator, writer and it doesn't stop there.  We sit on the porch with Jean-Claude van Itallie at his inspriring retreat center, Shantigar.

Outside (In)dia – Podcast 241

Today we share a WKCR broadcast featuring musicians Amir ElSaffar, Awa Sangho, Roman Diaz, Martha Redbone, and producer Hans Taparia from the India Center Foundation.
We were promoting Outside (In)dia a free concert series, at Lincoln Center featuring all those great musicians.  The opening event is this Friday with Amir El Saffar and we'll hear a discussion with Amir as well as music from all these amazing musicians.
Outside (In)dia is a four-part concert series produced by The India Center Foundation and curated by Brooklyn Raga Massive that pushes the boundaries and conceptions of Indian classical music. With commissions of new works bringing raga into play with musical traditions spanning Cuba to Iraq, the series will position Indian classical music as a space for inclusion, collaboration, and conversation in a revolutionary new way.
Subsequent events in the series will feature Cuban master drummer Román Diaz (Nov 10),powerful Malian singer Awa Sangho (Feb 9) and Native American folk and soul songstress Martha Redbone (Apr 13).

BRM’s Coltrane Raga Tribute – Podcast 234

Brooklyn Raga Massive's Coltrane Raga Tribute are about to drop their New Album - and the release party will be a free concert in Prospect Park at Celebrate Brooklyn June 23rd with Pharoah Sanders headlining!
We hang with Sameer Gupta, the tabla upstart, drummer and musical director of the project and listen to a live performance from Pioneer Works. If you want to hear it all you'll have to get the album though!
This podcast will air on WKCR 89.9 FM-NY on Sunday June 18th at 7pm.
The all-star ensemble in the set we hear includes:
Sameer Gupta - Drumset/Tabla (musical director),
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

Barbes – Podcast 233

Barbès is a small Brooklyn club which has been presenting music on a daily basis for now 15 years. Started on a shoestring budget in a former barber shop in the South Slope, Barbès has for years acted as a kind of laboratory for all different kinds of new projects and become a true community hub.
They're in the hole $70,000K and have turned to the community for support. The community has answered back in a big way.  You can join the movement and find about a great benefit concert here.
We hang with Olivier Conan at Barbes and hear tracks from Chicha Libre,  Chicha libre's Canibalismo  Las Rubias del Norte Panamericana and Miramar.

Chico Freeman – Podcast 232

For Chico Freeman, Jazz is the family business.  His father played with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Ella Fitzgerald and his grandfather was an associate of Louis Armstrong.
Chico has had an amazing career playing with the likes of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Sun Ra, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Celia Cruz, Charles Mingus, Tito Puente, to name a few.  We got to hang with the great musician, composer and producer and get the inside story on working with so many of these icons of music.
Chico also shares selections from some recent albums including  The Essence of Silence, All In The Family, Spoken Into Existence, and Elvin: Tribute to Elvin Jones.  He'll be performing at Dizzy's Club Coca Cola on June 7th and 8th.

Jay Gandhi – Podcast 231

The day after a moving performance with Ravi Coltrane, Reggie Workman, Jeff Tain Watts an other giants of Jazz, we hung out at home with Jay Gandhi! After our short conversation he shares a special live performance.
Jay is an artist who dedicated to the Hindustani tradition and is also bringing his instrument, the bansuri, into new territory.
 

Samarth Nagarkar and Meghashyam Keshav – Podcast 230

The nineteenth set of the historic, Ragas Live Festival 2016, live at Pioneer Works.  Samarth Nagarkar (vocal), Meghashyam Keshav (tabla), Rohan Prabhudesai (harmonium).  This is a great to chance to experience music created for the sunrise.  It was performed as the first rays broke through the evening sky.
Samarth Nagarkar is a Hindustani classical vocalist, known for his captivating performances and richly traditional music.
Samarth features in prominent music festivals and venues in India and the US including The ITC Sangeet Sammelan, Kolkata; Chhandayan All Night Concert, The International Fringe Festival and The Drive East Festival, NYC; Maverick Concerts, Woodstock; Ali Akbar College of Music and Basant Bahar, San Francisco; The APAP Showcase at Rockwood Music Hall, NYC; The Kashinath Bodas Music Festival, Pheonix; The Gandharva Festival in New Jersey and Universities like Stanford, UPenn, UPitt and PSU.
He has two albums titled ‘Pranali’ and ‘Pravah’ and a book, ‘Raga Sangeet’ to his credit.
He has also composed music for major international films and conventions.
Samarth is a recipient of the President’s Award for winning the All India Radio’s National Music Competition and a Fellowship from the Ministry of Culture, Government of India.
He was formerly head of the K. K. Kapoor Sangeet Research Academy in Lucknow and currently teaches at two prominent music schools in New York, and also teaches adjunct lectures and master-classes at schools/universities like MSM and NYU.
He is a former scholar of the prestigious ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata and has trained extensively in the strict guru-shishya parampara under two renowned gurus and top ranking musicians - Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar and Pandit Dinkar Kaikini.
Pursuing a full-fledged career as a performer, composer, teacher and author, Samarth is described by critics as one of today’s most prolific performers and a torchbearer of the traditions he represents.
Ragas Live Festival 2016 is produced with the support of The Rubin Museum of Art

Cosmas Magaya Podcast 229

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)

LADAMA Podcast 228

We get to hang at home with LADAMA!  We recorded some songs and chat with  Mafer Bandola (bandola llanera), Lara Klaus (percussion, drums), Daniela Serna (percussion)  Sara Lucas (voice, guitar) and Pat Swoboda (bass).  
LADAMA is an ensemble of women musicians (joined by Pat for this session) who combine the rhythms and traditional instrumentation of frevo and maracatu from Pernambuco, Brazil;  joropo songs from the high plains of Venezuela; cumbia, gaita and champeta from the Colombian coast and contemporary strains of American pop and jazz.
Members of LADAMA specialize in, among other instruments, the bandola llanera from Venezuela, the tambor alegre from Colombia, and the pandeiro and zabumba from Northeast Brazil. Their performances include original compositions and traditional songs sung in Spanish, Portuguese and English combining disparate elements into a cohesive whole. The result is a sonic experience through which we can view our future as a world that communicates across continents and cultures, with sound and story.

Vieux Farka Toure Returns: Podcast 228

We're psyched to see that one of one of our favorite groups in NYC Innov Gnawa is combining forces with the great Vieux Farka Tourre this Thursday at BRIC.
Last September, 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 moking band!  Many thanks to World Music Institute and Le Poisson Rouge for making that happen.
Often referred to as “The Hendrix of the Sahara”, Vieux Farka Touré was born in Niafunké, Mali in 1981. He is the son of legendary Malian guitar player Ali Farka Touré, who died in 2006. Ali Farka Touré came from a historical tribe of soldiers, and defied his parents in becoming a musician. When Vieux was in his teens, he declared that he also wanted to be a musician. His father dissaproved due to the pressures he had experienced being a musician. Rather, he wanted Vieux to become a soldier. But with help from family friend the kora maestro Toumani Diabaté, Vieux eventually convinced his father to give him his blessing to become a musician shortly before Ali passed.
Vieux was initially a drummer / calabash player at Mali’s Institut National des Arts, but secretly began playing guitar in 2001. Ali Farka Touré was weakened with cancer when Vieux announced that he was going to record an album. Ali recorded a couple of tracks with him, and these recordings, which can be heard on Vieux’s debut CD, were amongst his final ones. It has been said that the senior Touré played rough mixes of these songs when people visited him in his final days, at peace with, and proud of, his son’s talent as a musician. He know tours internationally with many acclaimed records to his name.
 
 

Miramar Podcast 227

With stirring vocal harmonies and luscious arrangements, Miramar breathe life into the classic bolero tradition.  We got to sit down with their music director and keyboardist, Marlyse Simmons and learn about the history of boleros and hear and learn about the muse of their new album Sylvia Rexach.  

Gnaoua Fest is coming to NYC Podcast 226

The world-renowned Moroccan Festival Gnaoua et Musiques du MondeEssaouira celebrates its 20th anniversary with a debut NYC collaboration. Great Maalems (masters) and all-stars of the festival trace a musical journey of the ancient music of Gnawa during a night of trance and tradition.
There will be events all week in NYC.
In this WKCR broadcast we get to speak with master drummer, Will Calhoun; Samir Langus and Nawfal Atiq of Innov Gnawa  Meera Dugal of Lincoln Center, about what to expect and delve deep into this magical tradition
March 16th | Gnaoua Festival Tour 2017 Kickoff Concert at the David Rubenstein Atrium ft. Maalem Hamid El Kasri, Maalem Abdeslam Alikkane + special guest Maalem Hassan Ben Jaafer
https://www.facebook.com/events/1890793107822486/
March 17th | Gnaoua Festival Tour 2017 tradtional concert with Maalem Abdeslam Alikkane at The New School Jazz
https://events.newschool.edu/…/gnaoua_festival_tour_2017_an…
March 19th | Gnaoua et Jazz at Pioneer Works with Maalem Hamid El Kasri, Maalem Abdeslam Alikkane, Will Calhoun, Marcus Strickland, Marc Cary, and Jamaaladeen Tacuma
https://www.facebook.com/events/657330721116926/
Monday, March 20 at 6:30 PM - 9 PM
 Panel + Innov Performace at The New School Jazz
https://www.facebook.com/events/246751079067805/
 Randy Weston Masterclass ft. Maalam Hassan Benjaafar and Samir LanGus of Innov Gnawa (Lec/Dec) To be resecheduled due to weather 
https://www.facebook.com/events/393158167717471/