Press

This collaboration with the adventurous, multi-cultural collective Brooklyn Raga Massive is an absolutely inspired pairing. For the last seven years, BRM have been fusing Indian classical music, US minimalism and deep jazz to stunning effect…It's a stunning journey into the unknown.

Sublime...a gorgeously complex tapestry of sounds, hues and sensations

There are precious few opportunities to enjoy a frosty beverage while slipping into the transcendental time warp of a classical Indian raga — which makes the Brooklyn Raga Massive's peripatetic Wednesday night events kind of like the Alamo Drafthouse of Indian classical music.

24 hours of uninterrupted, absolutely incredible music performances

Though a tradition takes years to establish itself, a group of Indian raga enthusiasts are well on their way to making one for their increasingly multi-ethnic, and hip central Brooklyn neighborhood of Prospect Heights.

This group of artists based here are taking Indian tradition and they’ve basically been pushing forward into new territory.

Two of the most interesting bands in the USA....In the jazz world, not since Sun Ra has this reviewer heard anything so successful at reaching the parts other music generally fails to reach. This double album feels like a milestone in the evolution of truly world music.

An East-West psychedelic reenvisioning of the epoch-making work

In New York, we’re going to Brooklyn Raga Massive classes. It’s classical Indian music with a Brooklyn twist... We’re trying to make sure (our son) understands he’s half-Indian... What I’m interested in seeing is how those expressions of Indian culture have evolved over time.

Having brought about a revitalisation of the ragas, it would be safe to call them the Raga Ambassadors of the Big Apple.

The idea of the Massive was not only to encourage dialogue between established and young musicians, but also to broaden the audience for these forms in hyper-cosmopolitan New York. Swiftly, they have created a vibrant and substantial audience for music from India.

Classical Indian music infuses nature, seasons, time of day, and spirituality into its music. Brooklyn Raga Massive have brought it to contemporary audiences with such force, its power is hard to deny...the musicianship and their commitment to the craft are jaw-dropping.

It's beautiful, expansive and majestic: it's expansive otherness, its core rasa, reminds me of the feeling I get when listening to my heroes; Cherry, Sanders, Sun Ra, Coltrane. It is an authoritative step forward in the evolution of a truly global, celestial, cosmic "world" music.

Riveting ... Soulful … The Massive members are proud of their open-minded outlook. New forms are being created that are indigenous to Brooklyn

While listeners of a certain generation might recognize sitarist Ravi Shankar or recall how bands like the Beatles and Rolling Stones used Indian instrumentation on some of their ’60s hits, BRM members seek to redefine classical Indian music in the new century.

Attracting an audience as stylishly diverse as its music, the BRM offers a just-say-yes approach to collaboration that has brought together Moroccan, West African, electronic, jazz, and hip-hop musicians under its inclusive umbrella.