BRM Jam Session

Sheherazaad presents Qasr, her latest album, an experimental Hindi - Urdu project at Art Cafe. The ensemble includes Jake Charkey (cello), Mehrnam Rastegari (kamancheh), and Gilbert Mansour (percussion). The concert will be followed by a jam session at 9:00pm - all are welcome. If you are a musician, sign up for the jam session!

Schedule: 7pm Doors Open | 7:30 Concert | 9:00 PM Jam Session

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About the Artist

Sheherazaad is an American performer-composer, whose contemporary folk-pop synthesis joins the new wave of South Asian diasporic soundscapes.

Native to the San Francisco Bay Area and brought up second-generation in an immigrant household, Sheherazaad gleans from Western classical and South Asian sonic lineages. Her contemporary voicing, though inherently genre-defiant, may be described as alternative folk or experimental ballad. Sheherazaad’s original lyricism modernizes certain existing Hindi-Urdu poetic forms, channelling questions of displacement, mother tongue, imagined homelands, and beyond. Currently, she allows the experience of shifting between India and Brooklyn, NYC to shape her eccentric and hyphenated musical aesthetic.

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Brooklyn Raga Massive presents Slowspin in an evening of syncretic evocations that speak to our collective desire for oneness; songs of love, loss and longing rooted in Indo-Persian poetic expressions map the fractured constellation of migrant memories. Slowspin’s quartet includes vocalist Zeerak Ahmed, guitarist Grey Mcmurray, drummer Marlon Patton and Grammy-nominated multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily. Slowspin's performance will be followed by the legendary BRM jam session. Musicians interested in participating in the jam gain free entry and can sign up here.

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About Slowspin

US-based Pakistani artist Zeerak Ahmed, who performs under the stage name Slowspin, produces voice-based sculptures, sound installations and uniquely fragile sound collages. Slowspin has a distinct sound practice grounded in North Indian classical vocal traditions, dream-folk, ambient and experimental-electronic music. Poetry and melodies in her mother tongue(s)—Urdu, Farsi, Purbi and English—build new textural soundscapes. Her collaborative album, TALISMAN, opens a world of Slowspin's uncanny and heart-wrenching refrains, delivering a balm for the migrant's journey into the unknown: the abyss of love, loss and longing. Since the release of the TALISMAN, she has been performing with the album’s co-producer Grey Mcmurray (Tongues in Trees trio, Beth Orthon, Ali Sethi), Marlon Patton (Lonnie Holley, The Mace Hibbard Quintet) and Grammy nominated multi-instrumentalist, Shahzad Ismaily (Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Love in Exile).  

Compass is a trio that brings an original compositional voice to the three musicians’ collective experience and expertise - Indian raga and tala, the art of flamenco, jazz harmony, and deep groove. The rhythmic form of North Indian music known as theka is a uniquely sophisticated container for exploring time and polyrhythm. Separated by hundreds of years and countless migrations of the Gitano diasporathroughout present day Middle East and Europe we find the same concepts in new forms through the Spanish compas. This musical connection through history and culture is referenced in the name Compass; both a tool to find one’s way home as well as that which structures time in music, another form of finding “home”. Compass Trio is comprised of guitar and effects(James Labrosse), tabla (Tripp Dudley), and sitar (Galen Passen) and integrates these deeper connections of tradition and music into its interweaving forms, reflections and improvisations. Each piece is a truly original creation, borne out of our own individual creative expressions while being deeply rooted in the extensive traditions that we have studied.

Post the concert, we will have a special jam session and holiday celebration at 9:00 PM! Bring your instruments and come play with us! If you are a musician, sign up for the jam session here!

The Anirudh Varma Collective (AVC) will be presenting an evening of contemporary Indian Classical Music featuring Anirudh Varma on Piano, Soumitra Thakur on Sitar, Saptak Sharma on tabla and Saptak Chatterjee on Hindustani Classical Vocals. Doors at 7, show at 7:30 PM!The show will be followed with a BRM Jam session at 9:00 PM. Bring your instruments and come play with us! Click here for more information about the Jam Session.

About the Artist

The Anirudh Varma Collective (AVC) is a contemporary Indian classical ensemble from New Delhi, India. It is led by pianist, composer & producer, Anirudh Varma. The Collective comprises over 150 musicians and artists from across India, America, and Canada. Their attempt is to bring the rich tradition of Indian Classical music out of a niche viewership to a larger global audience, through convergence with diverse genres but keeping it rooted in its pure form.

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Shifting South Asian classical elements toward pop and jazz sensibilities in a refreshing, organic way, New York based, Chennai born singer, composer and violinist Harini “Rini” Raghavan creates her own version of Indian Jazztronica. Harini draws from her formal training in Carnatic music and work at Berklee College of Music to bring together sounds and music of her birthplace in India and her home in the US. She leads a group of acclaimed NYC based musicians from different countries that add their unique musical influences to create ‘a powerful contemporary Carnatic/electronic fusion sound’ as described by Rolling Stone India. Rini's set will be followed by Brooklyn Raga Massive's iconic jam session. 

Featured Artists:

Maxime Cholley (France), drums 

Andrew Cheng (Malaysia), guitar

Marcelo Maccagnan (Brazil), bass

Josh Plotner (USA), sax/ewi

Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm

About the Artists

An experienced performer and recording artist, Harini has recorded and performed with Grammy winning composers A.R.Rahman, Bill Whelan and the renowned Israeli Singer-Songwriter Idan Raichel, headlining prestigious festivals and venues in US and India, including Boston Symphony Hall, Lincoln Center, Beacon Theatre and the United Nations General Assembly. Harini was also a part of the Grammy nominated Berklee Indian Ensemble album 'Shuruaat'. She composed the background score, along with Andrew Orkin, for the Netflix show ‘The Fame Game’ starring the Bollywood icon Madhuri Dixit and recorded voice and violin for the series( #1 in Netflix India, Pakistan, and top 10 in the UK, Australia for many weeks). . She performs across the United States with other projects as well like the multi disciplinary production ‘Bollywood Boulevard’ as a lead singer and violinist (performances at performing arts centers like Lincoln Center, NJPAC, Wolf Trap, Kingsbury Hall UT), with American Patchwork Quartet as lead singer/violinist (performances at Cafe Lena NY, Levitt Pavilion CT), JSWISS(Blue Note NYC), Salsa Masala(Center at West Park, NYC). Rini is a 2023 Artist Fellow for the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Learn more at www.rinimusic.com.

About Brooklyn Raga Massive

The idea of Brooklyn Raga Massive was born in 2012 during a weekly concert and jam session at a local Prospect Heights venue. What began as a casual series, flourished and grew into a mainstay of the New York City arts scene, cultivating a vibrant community of diverse musicians and music lovers. Brooklyn Raga Massive has since grown into an adventurous nonprofit musicians' collective that creates cross-cultural understanding through the lens of South Asian classical music by providing direct support to artists, fostering collaboration through our iconic concerts and jam sessions, facilitating cultural exchange through educational initiatives, and producing transcendent, and often massive, performances, festivals, and one-of-a-kind albums. Learn more at www.brooklynragamassive.org

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Brooklyn Raga Massive is proud to present the latest musical offering by percussionist Sameer Gupta alongside his longtime musical collaborators Marc Cary (keys), Pawan Benjamin (winds) and Rashaan Carter (bass). JUPITER is a shoe-gazer inspired free jazz experiment with visions of Indian classical music and universal consciousness joining epic improvisational journeys set across a luscious landscape of long-sample warping and shimmering dynamics. Born of loss and grieving for loved ones now departed, JUPITER sets a luminous tone through its interstellar raga-inspired improvisations woven throughout a cosmic drone landscape. The music flies towards the farthest reaches of outer space searching to ease our suffering and acknowledge the ever increasing desire for liberation. 

This night is extra special in that, back at our longtime home at Art Cafe, we will have a farewell celebration for Sameer as he and his family leave Brooklyn to embark on a new adventure in the Bay Area. As one of the Co-Founders of BRM, Sameer has been a mainstay of our community, an outstanding artist, and a tireless contributor to BRM. We are honored to present his new project, Jupiter, as the featured artists as well as the anchors for the jam session.  We hope you will join us to hear some great music and raise a glass as we wish Sameer and his family well on their new endeavors! 

Musicians, bring your instruments for the jam session and entry is free!

About the Artists

Sameer Gupta (b. 1976) has created a unique musical sound by combining traditional and modern improvisational styles drawing from his dual Indian and American heritage, and has already established himself as an original voice in music today. Gupta did not begin the tabla until well into his jazz career in the early 2000s, and now from bebop to avant-garde jazz, and European classical percussion to North Indian classical tabla, he continues to compose and perform music from a true multi-cultural perspective that now bridges several continents.

In a jazz world brimming with brilliant and adventurous pianists, Marc Cary stands apart by way of pedigree and design. None of his prestigious peer group ever set the groove behind the drums in Washington DC go-go bands nor are any others graduates of both Betty Carter and Abbey Lincoln’s daunting bandstand academies. Cary remains one of the progenitors of contemporary jazz, evident in his influence on peers. Live gigs with vibraphonist Stefon Harris and bandmate Casey Benjamin began the genesis of Robert Glasper’s recording Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” and Cary’s record “Taiwa” from Focus in 2006 evolved into “For You” on Glasper’s Double Booked and Harris’ Urbanus. Cary collaborator Roy Hargrove exalted him with “Caryisms” on 1992’s The Vibe, an album whose title track is one of two Cary originals including “Running Out of Time”–now part of the lexicon of live repertoire among jazz stalwarts Hargrove, Dr. Lonnie Smith and Igmar Thomas’ Revive Big Band. As New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen observed recently, “There isn’t much in the modern-jazz-musician tool kit that Marc Cary hasn’t mastered, but he has a particular subspecialty in the area of groove…with a range of rhythmic strategies, from a deep-house pulse to a swinging churn.” Mr. Cary richly embodies the spirit of diverse streams that feed into the ample body of what we consider jazz history today.

As both an accomplished Saxophonist and Bansuri flute player, Pawan Benjamin stands at the intersection of profound musical traditions. Rooted in Jazz and Improvisation, his pursuit of learning later led him to the Bansuri Flute and a deep study of Nepali Folk and Indian Classical Music. His unique perspective into these legacies of music has allowed him to work with a myriad of world-class artists, and perform and teach around the world. Pawan has performed alongside artists such as Roscoe Mitchell, Reggie Workman, Ranjit Barot, Bill T. Jones, Taufiq Qureshi, Rez Abbasi, Marc Cary, and others. Performance credits include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Newport Festival, the Kennedy Center, the Rubin Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, the Mondriaan Jazz Festival, the Bimhuis, the NCPA in Mumbai, Goa International Jazz Festival, and more.

Rashaan Carter grew up in the Washington D.C. area. It was there, with the nurturing of his father, a saxophonist, and his mother, a jazz radio programmer, Rashaan forged an interest in music. After stints with various instruments, the bass became the voice for his musical expression. Rashaan worked and gained experience in the local scene in Washington D.C. and after high school, moved to New York City to attend the New School University. At the New School, Rashaan studied with Buster Williams and Reggie Workman. While attending the New School he also began to work with many of the faculty including Joe Chambers and Jimmy Owens, among others. Since moving to New York Rashaan has become entrenched in the jazz scene and has worked with Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller and Louis Hayes, Wallace Roney, Marc Cary, Cindy Blackman, Doug and Jean Carn, Antoine Roney, Sonny Simmons, and many more. He’s also studied with one of his prime influences, Ron Carter. Rashaan regularly performs with a myriad of artists in and outside of New York and can be found on various recordings as well.

Known for using her voice as an instrument for improvisation, Sandhya Sanjana brings her Indian classical vocal training into conversation with jazz and global music traditions to dazzling effect. For this special show, Sanjana will be joined by her myriad of talented friends including firebird trumpet player Indofunk Satish, tabla player Shivalik Ghoshal, and pianist Surya Botofasina. The concert will be followed by a jam session at 9:00pm - all are welcome!

Schedule: 7pm Doors Open | 7:30 - 9:00pm Concert | 9:00-11:00pm Jam Session

About the Artists

Sandhya Sanjana is a vocalist who integrates Indian classical vocals with jazz and world music. She was classically trained in India under various gurus. Later she discovered other musical genres and started fusing these styles into her musical vocabulary. Her forte is to use her voice as an instrument for improvisation. Living in the melting pot which is Amsterdam, she has encountered many musicians from various countries and has enriched her music through interacting with them. In the last years, she has toured and performed extensively all over the world.

Indofunk Satish is a veteran of the New York City improvised music scene. Beginning with his eponymous band Indofunk in the early 2000s, he has brought a unique style of Indian classical/jazz/funk fusion to every project he has played in, including rock (Bruce Springsteen, Jesse Malin), jazz, electronic, and world music (The Master Musicians of Jajouka, Brooklyn Raga Massive).

Surya Botofasina is a Spiritual Being, a Spiritual Musician, a Spiritual Artist, on a Spiritual Quest, this is his orientation, his focus, practice, and identity as a Father, a Friend, a Family Member, "a child of the Ashram." Born and Raised in California, Surya credits his Mother Radha Botofasina (a Devotee, Student and Mentee of Swamini Turiyasangitananda Alice Coltrane,) as his primary and most essential Musical Influence. "Without my Mother," he says," there is no music, no person, no piano, no California, no Ashram.” 

Shivalik Ghoshal comes from a musical family. From the age of seven, Shivalik has been a student of Sree Kinner K. Seen of Punjab gharana since 1989. Kinner-ji’s father, Pandit Lachman Seen, is the gurubhai of the late Ustad Alla Rakha Khan-Saheb. Presently, he is a student of the tabla maestro Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri of the Lucknow gharana since 1997. Shivalik has had the honor and privilege of accompanying maestros like Pandit Manilal Nag, Smt Girija Devi, Pandit Jasraj, Pandit Phalguni Mitra and Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain. Last but not least, Shivalik has performed all the tabla drumming in the Oscar winning soundtrack of the 2004 docu-drama, “Born Into Brothels.” In 2013, Shivalik participated in the "The Jungle Book" Musical with Walt Disney Theatrics, working with, Toni-winning theater director Mary Zimmerman, Toni-winning dance choreographer Christopher Gatelli for Broadway's "Newsies” and multi-talented music director Doug Peck who remixed the Jazz based music of the movie with Indian classical instrumentation for the "The Jungle Book” musical that toured in Chicago’s Goodman Theater and Boston’s Huntington Theater, respectively. Currently, he is a part/member of the Raga Renaissance movement in Brooklyn as part of Brooklyn Raga Massive (BRM) community that is dedicated to promoting Indian Classical/Raga based music throughout the NY area.

Dr. Sadaf Munshi of the University of North Texas presents her research on endangered languages in a beautiful and engaging manner with interspersed poetry recitations and musical performances on the santoor. Celebrating Kashmir’s historical location at the confluence of Central and South Asian cultures, Iranian musician Mehrnam Rastegari will accompany Dr. Munshi on kamancha and tombak. Through this extraordinarily rare intersection of talents, knowledge, and lived experience, Sonzal (meaning “rainbow”) lives up to its name by showcasing the multifaceted and multihued artistic cultures of Kashmir.

This concert will be followed by BRM's iconic jam session at 9pm. All musicians and vocalists are welcome!

About the Series‍

Between the Bats and Bulbuls: Musical Expressions from the Valley of Kashmir

Season 5 of Brooklyn Raga Massive’s Uncovered/Recovered series is dedicated to the rich and evolving landscapes of musical expression from the Kashmir Valley. Featuring contemporary and classical musicians, filmmakers, advocates, and scholars, the series explores how Kashmiri artists navigate limitations on free speech while preserving and innovating on the region’s multicultural traditions.

All events in this series are free and open to the public. If you’d like to make a suggested donation of $25 you can do so here.

BRM acknowledges that our collective and artists have thrived because of the labor of disprivileged artisan communities in South Asia who have played significant roles in the creation, preservation, and innovation of raga-based arts. The Uncovered/Recovered series aims to platform these underrepresented voices and strengthen BRM’s commitment to decolonized art and critical activism. Learn more about the series and past seasons here.

About the Artists

Dr. Sadaf Munshi is a US-based documentary linguist, writer, poet, critic, musician and visual artist of Kashmiri origin. A Professor and former Chair of the Department of Linguistics at the University of North Texas, her research focuses on the documentation of endangered linguistic and poetic traditions of Kashmir and adjoining areas. Dr. Munshi has done almost two decades of extensive fieldwork and conducted various training workshops in India and Pakistan. A polyglot, she writes in Kashmiri (her mother tongue), English and Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu). Her satirical ballads in Kashmiri have been broadcast on the state television in Jammu & Kashmir. In 2021, a collection of her English poems appeared in a special issue of The Punch – a leading literary magazine in India. Munshi is also a self-taught visual artist having produced numerous pieces of art in oil, watercolor, and multimedia. An exhibition of her paintings organized by the Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages in 2014 was the first solo painting exhibition by a female artist of Kashmiri origin.She has been featured in numerous regional and international media outlets for her contributions in linguistics, creative writing and visual arts. While exploring the poetic and musical traditions of South and Central Asia, Munshi started learning one of the earliest musical instruments of Iran and Kashmir, viz., santūr. Her exposure to santūr has been instrumental in enriching her understanding of the Kashmiri and Persian language and music through poetry and song. She has since leveraged this understanding to work with world-class musicians on the Voices and Bridges Project as a linguistic and academic advisor. 

Mehrnam Rastegari is a prominent Iranian musician and film score composer, singer, violinist, and master Kamancheh player. She has been featured in concerts and music festivals worldwide, including in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France, Finland, Iran, and Kazakhstan. These performances have occurred at some of the most prestigious music festivals in the world, including the WOMEX World Music Expo, which occurred in Tampere, Finland, the GlobalFest in the United States, NYC, and the Fajr International Music Festival in Tehran, Iran. Rastegari is an extraordinary performer on Kamancheh and has been recognized by some of the best Kamancheh performers and instructors globally, who certified her as a Master Kamancheh player. She had a remarkable performance with John Batiste, the Oscars-winning musician in the "Eyes on Iran" project in NYC. She was featured as a guest speaker in the TEDx event “Oasis: Existence in Nothingness.” Additionally, she composed the score for multiple award-winning films, including “Dispirited” for which she won the award of “Best Original Score” from the Melbourne City Independent Film Awards (MCIFA), and the film “Rotten,” which was nominated for the original score in Japan Kadoma Festival.

The George Crotty Trio roams wild realms beyond the pale of the cello’s classical roots. Known for their expressive fluidity and modal orientation, The George Crotty Trio engages in cross-cultural interplay with post-bop, modal jazz, Indian Raga, and Arabic Maqam, all while pushing the boundaries of the cello as a jazz instrument, on which bandleader George Crotty has forged his own exciting vocabulary. 

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Featured artists:

George Crotty, cello 

John Murchison, bass 

Jeremy Smith, percussion

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Schedule: 

7pm Doors Open 

7:30 - 9:00pm Concert 

9:00-11:00pm Jam Session

Afghan tabla player Hamid Habib Zada is joined by harmonium player Shekib Ghawsi for an evening of Afghani and Indian songs, ghazals, and original music. Hamid Habib Zada was born in Afghanistan to a musical family. He started playing the tabla at 9 years old and has since played at prestigious venues across the US such as Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and The Musical Instrument Museum in Arizona. Harmonium player Shekib Ghawsi was born in Afghanistan he started learning music at a young age and now performs across the USA. Concert followed by a jam session.

Schedule: 7pm Doors Open | 7:30 - 9:00pm Concert | 9:00-11:00pm Jam Session

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Join us back at Branded Saloon for our live, in person concert + iconic BRM Jam session! Begin your evening with a performance of Indian classical repertoire from the Hindustani Maihar gharana by guitarist, composer, and sarod player Anupam Shobhakar joined by Sameer Gupta on tabla and Alec Goldfarb on guitar. BRM Co-Artistic Director and sitar player Neel Murgai will lead a BRM house band and curate the session.

Schedule:

7pm Doors

7:30 - 9:00pm Concert

9 - 11:00pm Jam Session

About the Artists

Anupam Shobhakar is a Guitarist, Composer, and Sarodist. He went on to study one of the most difficult instruments found in Indian Classical Music, the Sarod, from Shree Suresh Vyas (Student of Annapurna Devi) and Ustad Aashish Khan (Son of the Late Maestro Ali Akbar Khan, and grandson of legendary Baba Allauddin Khan). Anupam received the prestigious title of ‘Sur Mani’ or jewel of melody from the prestigious Sur Singar Samsad organization in Bombay,India.

Sameer Gupta is known as one of the few percussionists simultaneously representing the traditions of American jazz on drumset, and Indian classical music on tabla. Today he lives in Brooklyn, NYC and is actively involved in performing, curating, producing and teaching through various institutions including the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn Raga Massive, Carnegie Hall’s Global Encounters and Ragas Live Festival.

Neel Murgai is a sitarist, overtone singer, percussionist, composer, teacher, and Co-Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, a raga inspired musician's collective. Neel's music ranges from Indian classical to original compositions and contemporary cross-cultural collaborations with influences spanning the globe. Neel has worked with a diverse array of artists and ensembles, including Bill T. Jones, Adam Rudolph, Andre DeShields, Wyclef Jean, Cyndi Lauper, Karsh Kale, Samir Chatterjee, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Mary Zimmerman, Daniel Bernard Romain, Ellen Stewart, Laraaji, Yuerba Buena, Baba Israel, Raz Mesinai, Mission on Mars, Akim Funk Buddha, Loren Conners, Haunted House and Cosmo Vinyl. He has performed at venues ranging from the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center to the David Letterman Show to jazz clubs such as the Blue Note and at festivals around the U.S including Art Wallah, Arts Plosure, Masala! Mehndi! Masti! and many others.

Note: Proof of vaccination required to attend this event. Negative Covid-19 test taken 24 hours before concert will be accepted.

BRM's Concert and jam session is back in person! For our first in person, live, BRM weekly and jam session we are joined by three artists who rang in the first ever jam session 9 years ago. To celebrate this special occasion, we invite you to a BRM jugalbandhi, a term for a duet concert translating to "entwined twins", featuring Jay Gandhi (bansuri) and Abhik Mukherjee (sitar). Both strong solo performers in their own right, they have also become well known for their enthralling musical chemistry together. Their contrasting yet complementary musical styles offer a compelling composite of melodic and rhythmic approaches and lend themselves to a deep and spontaneous exploration of rasa (emotional essence) and mood. Their repertoire ranges from the introspective and meditative to the joyful, romantic and ecstatic. They will be accompanied by Sameer Gupta on tabla who is known for his pathbreaking cross genre work as both a Jazz drummer and tabla player.

For our inaugural post-covid jam session, BRM Co-Artistic Director and Carnatic violin player Arun Ramamurthy will lead a BRM house band and curate the session. Doors at 7pm, Concert at 7:30pm, Jam Session at 9pm.

Schedule:

7pm Doors

7:30 - 9:00pm Concert

9 - 11:00pm Jam Session

About the Artists

Abhik Mukherjee is a Kolkata-born sitar player of the Etawah-Imdadkhani gharana. He was initiated to sitar at the age of six by his father, Sri Tarit Mukherjee, and Sri Bimal Chatterjee, while simultaneously receiving vocal instruction from Sri Kaylan Bose. He has since taken talim from Pandit Arvind Parikh and Pandit Kashinath Mukherjee, themselves disciples of the legendary Ustad Vilayat Khan. He is a gold medalist in musicology from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, and has also received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture, India.
Abhik has performed and toured across the world. He currently lives in New York City and is a founding member of Brooklyn Raga Massive, an Indian classical music artists’ collective.

A multifaceted artist, Jay Gandhi is a disciple of the legendary Pandit ‪Hariprasad Chaurasia‬. In addition to having accompanied his Guru for multiple concert tours, he has established himself as a prominent solo performer of Hindustani classical flute.
His parallel explorations in American Jazz have afforded him the honor of performing with such greats as ‪Ravi Coltrane‬, ‪Reggie Workman‬, Jeff “Tain” Watts, as well as of sharing the stage with the legendary ‪Pharoah Sanders‬. Based out of NYC, Jay maintains a busy schedule of touring, teaching and as a founding member of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, a prominent musicians collective.

Sameer Gupta is known as one of the few percussionists simultaneously representing the traditions of American jazz on drumset, and Indian classical music on tabla. Today he lives in Brooklyn, NYC and is actively involved in performing, curating, producing and teaching through various institutions including the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn Raga Massive, Carnegie Hall’s Global Encounters and Ragas Live Festival.

Arun Ramamurthy is a versatile violinist, composer and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. A disciple of the celebrated Carnatic violinist brothers, Dr. Mysore Manjunath & Sri Mysore Nagaraj, Arun has carved a niche for himself as a multifaceted artist, performing internationally in both traditional Carnatic and Hindustani settings as well as cross genre creative projects. He has performed with master musicians from around the world like Dr. Balamurali Krishna, Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, Ud. Mashkoor Ali Khan, Reggie Workman, Kenny Werner, Jamey Haddad, Adam Rudolph, Hamid Drake, Marc Cary and more. He leads the Arun Ramamurthy Trio, an ensemble creating original work and bringing a fresh approach to age-old South Indian classical repertoire. Arun is the recipient of the New Jazz Works Commission from Chamber Music America in 2019.  He is a co-founder and active musician and curator for Brooklyn Raga Massive, the popular raga-inspired artist collective. He also created the concert series Carnatic Sundays at Cornelia Street Café, an iconic jazz venue in New York’s West Village.

Note: Proof of vaccination required to attend this event. Negative Covid-19 test taken 24 hours before concert will be accepted.

This workshop is for musicians or others interested in low latency musical interaction online. It is possible to play music together remotely! Participants should be in the tristate area. BRM Artistic Director Neel Murgai has been researching this since the beginning of quarantine and he will discuss the general concepts of networked music, look at a few options and explore their limitations. Then we will jump right into the FREE, easy to use software Jamulus, and try to get as many people on as we can for a jam session and possible live stream. The following technical requirements are required to participate.

Technical Requirements:

Ethernet: you will need to be able to connect your computer to the Internet with an ethernet cable plugged directly into your router

Download and install Jamulus for MAC, Windows or Linux at https://jamulus.io/
Be sure to install both the Jamulus server and client

See MAC installation and security details below if you get a message saying “Jamulus can’t be opened because the developer cannot be verified" https://jamulus.io/wiki/Installation-for-Macintosh

AUDIO INTERFACE, MICS or DIRECT INPUT, and HEADPHONES
If you are on PC, you need an ASIO compatible interface.

6mbps upload and download speed minimum for your internet connection
Check your speed at https://www.speedtest.net/

Linux users will also need to download and install https://jackaudio.org/

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Composer and bansuri flutist in the Gayaki-ang vocal style, Eric Fraser shares his take on Indian classical music repertoire as well as original works from his new record that incorporate eclectic and electronic  arrangements. The concert will be followed by our raga jam session.

Schedule:
7pm Doors Open
7:30 - 9:00pm Concert
9:00-11:00pm Jam Session

Having deeply studied North-Indian classical flute from the late Pandit Gopal Roy, Eric Fraser is one of the few exponents of the original "gayaki-ang" or vocal style of bansuri flute. Eric's bansuri playing rings with authenticity and pure Indian tone, carrying a distinct sound imbibing a pure Gharana (Lineage). Eric Fraser is also a multi-instrumentalist, educator, composer, and songwriter. Eric's orientation to Indian classical music serves as an inspiration for melody and a creative tool for improvisation in original styles that incorporate voice, guitar, keyboard, electronics and looping. Eric is also a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT) and Fulbright Senior Research Scholar for Indian music, and brings his extensive musical skills to therapeutic work with children and adults. Learn more at www.ericfraser.com.

Percussionist and composer Dan Kurfirst joins us at Branded Saloon for a dynamic set with his quintet Quiet Kinetics. The ensemble explores the concept of stillness, breathing and emptiness as a gateway to higher consciousness. The music utilizes the age old concept of rhythmic repetition as an entry point to boundless joy and freedom. Powered by the unique combination of the Western Drumset and Indian Tabla, the band plays music that is equal parts danceable and contemplative. Think Adam Rudolph, collaborating with Q-tip, infused with the spirit of Miles Davis’s second quintet!

Featuring:

Daro Behroozi - reeds
Alexis Marcelo - keys
John Merritt - bass
Roshni Samlal - tabla
Dan Kurfirst - drum/percussion

Schedule:

7pm Doors

7:30 - 9:00pm Concert

9 - 11:00pm Jam Session

About the Artist

Dan Kurfirst is an NYC based percussionist, composer and improviser. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, his music is a product of his good fortune to have been brought up amongst people of all different cultures and master practitioners of varying musical styles. He has performed extensively in the New York City world music and improvised music scenes for years and has performed with various groups throughout Europe, India and the Middle East. Venues where Dan has performed include The John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Stone, OkeeChobee Festival, Roulette, Alwan for the Arts, Nublu, Rabindra Sadan Cultural Center of Kolkata, Barbes and The Vision Festival. He has lectured at Columbia University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Rabindra Sadan Nandan Campus(India) and the New York City Public School System. Over the years Dan has been blessed to work amongst some of the world’s most creative musicians, including Matt Darriau, Cheick Hamala Diabate, Tom Chess, Hamid Drake, Adam Rudolph, Oruc Guvenc, Noam Vazana, Neda Zaharaie, Daniel Carter, Brad Shepik, Gabriel Marin, William Parker, Daro Behroozi, Brandon Terzic, Kane Mathis and Ras Moshe – to name just a few. As a drummer/composer, Dan leads Spheric Sound Unit, a group dedicated to exploring cultural syncretism through music. He also co-leads Ensemble Fanaa, a trio which explores the intersection between African American, North African and Middle Eastern musical traditions. He recently worked as Musical Director for the Children's Museum of Manhattan’s: America To Zanzibar exhibit, helping to develop a touchscreen application for the Children to explore music of the Islamic world from India to Egypt to Indonesia. Learn more at www.dankurfirstmusic.com.

Note: Proof of vaccination required to attend this event. Negative Covid-19 test taken 24 hours before concert will be accepted.

Join us at Branded Saloon for the first concert + jam session of 2022! We begin the evening with Falsa: Sufi Music for Voice | Meditation | Transcendence | Conversation. Featuring contemporary arrangements of 14th Century Sufi music, Falsa transcends genre-specificity and cultural preconceptions in collaboration with a diverse array of improvisational musicians. Stick around after the concert for the Brooklyn Raga Massive jam session!

Featured Artists:
Umer Piracha- Vocals
Roshni Samlal- Tabla
Siddharth Ashokkumar - Carnatic Violin
Tom Deis - Guitar and Harmonium

Schedule:
7:00pm Doors open
7:30pm - 9:00pm Concert
9:00pm - 11:00pm Jam Session

About Falsa
Falsa is rooted in 14th century Sufi music (Indian classical mysticism similar to Rumi's transcendent poetry) with contemporary arrangements transcending genre-specificity and cultural preconceptions, in collaboration with a diverse array of improvisational world musicians. Falsa's music has been featured on NPR and NY Public Radio's New Sounds, with a sold-out debut at Carnegie Hall and performances at Lincoln Center amongst other venues of note. For Falsa's complete body of work and to learn more, please visit https://linktr.ee/falsamusic.

Join us for a special event with visual artist Siona Benjamin! The first segment will be an artist PPT presentation of work with a screening of a video collaboration where dancers assume the roles of characters in Benjamin’s work. The blue dancers perform an original dance based on the shared experiences of these self-described hybrid/transcultural artists. We end with a Q and A. In conversation with BRM host David Freeman.

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Siona Benjamin is a painter from Mumbai, now living in the U.S. Her work reflects her background of being brought up Jewish in the primarily Hindu and Muslim India. She has an MFA in painting and a second MFA in Theater set design. She has exhibited her work in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Siona does private and public art commissions, while also selling and exhibiting in galleries and museums. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2011 to India and a second Fulbright in 2017 to Israel.

Her work has been featured in: The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Financial Times, The Jewish Week, The Boston Globe, Art New England, Art and Antiques, ArtNews, The Times of India, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel and several others.

A documentary on her work is now available on Amazon.com. Title: Blue Like Me: The Art of Siona Benjamin
Artist website:
www.artsiona.com
www.bluelikeme.com