Get to Know: Brooklyn Raga Massive

0:00Alright, this is obviously not the Brian Lairshel theme. Listen for a minute, and then we'll tell you why we're playing it. That's good, right? Now we're beginning a little mini-series on some of the lesser known music worlds of New York City, not the top of the charts, types of music, but some of the groups supporting styles of music that maybe could only be found in a city like ours, right? So for the rest of the membership drive, we, at the end of the show, will introduce you to musicians and composers of distinctive kinds to talk about the programming or the community they represent and how you can get involved if you're interested as an artist or a listener, and they will give you the scoop on the often difficult life of an artist in a

1:01not-super-pop genre in New York City. And our first guests in this series are Neil Bergai, a satarrist, we were just hearing a satarr-oriented piece, a satarrist, overtone singer, percussionist, composer, and teacher, and Rushney Samlall, a Trinidadian toddler player, composer and teacher. They are the artistic directors of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, the Brooklyn Raga Massive, a Raga-inspired musician's collective, and we heard a little of their music coming in. So Neil and Rushney, welcome to WNYC. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much, Brian. Thank you for having us. Neil, you want to introduce people who don't know to what Raga music is? Sure, I'd be happy to. Raga literally means that which colors the mind. So it can be conceived of as like a painting in your mind where each note is a different color, a different mood, a different feeling, and then you string them together.

2:03You know, more practically it's a scale and the scale can be different ascending or descending, say major ascending or minor descending, something like that. And that's the classical, the form for the classical music in South Asia. I'm going to go right on to another selection of your music. This is from Brooklyn Raga Massive's in D, and for some of you who think that sounds familiar, it does. It sounds like the minimalist composer Terry Riley's iconic in C. And as you may recognize, if you know in C, that is intentional. I love it. So Raga is it unusual for Raga artists to take on contemporary music and interpret it?

3:23Raga, do you want to answer that? Yes, I'd love to. I think that especially from a tumble player's perspective, any classical musicians and in classical inspired musicians have always been interacting a lot with contemporary forms of new music being created ever since, you know, we've got the Beatles, we've got Lamont Young, and there's just been a history of that kind of interaction and collaboration. And I think now to especially in a place like New York where we have so many global musicians thriving here and working together, we have a lot more contemporary expressions of that via jazz or kind of cross connected global music as well. Yeah, and I see that along with your own compositions, you've also covered a number of pieces that Western listeners might know or Western music listeners might know, including much of John Coltrane's work, even a remix of the classic theme song to the French

4:29Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, what? So with many of these covers that are drawn from the work of Black American artists, has Black American music specifically inspired your own work, jazz in particular or anything else? Definitely, I have for all of us, I would say, a Brooklyn Raga Massive, Big Jazz Fans, and you know, we started this in 2012, or having a weekly concert series and a jam session based on a jazz jam session model, but with Raga music as the foundation. So then we were free to, you know, maybe start with a rock, but then there would be a sax phone is showing up in a guitarist and a Middle Eastern Ud player, and we're going all over the map, but jazz has been fundamental to what we're doing, and that's why we also, you know, we're inspired to do some of John Coltrane's music, because he is famously took a lesson or two with Ravi Shankar,

5:32the famous Indian Sitarist, and was inspired by Indian music, and of course, Alice Coltrane went way beyond that and really was inspired by Indian music. So we're bringing it full circle in our, in our tributes to John and Alice Coltrane. Rushney, I know both you and Neil are teachers as well as composers and performers, so I'm wondering how much is education a part of the mission of your collective, and are the younger generations interested, because some of our older listeners may be hearing all of this and saying, yeah, I've heard Raga music, I remember Ravi Shankar, but kids aren't interested in that. I think that I'm definitely starting to see and feel the momentum of new interest, you know, people who grew up, even older students, in addition to younger children who want to carry on, you know, that connection with the tradition, and the more this music gets spotlighted, I think, and the more sort of work and theory that's being generated about like how

6:35the music's put together, I think that people have a lot of interest in learning about the history, the, you know, where did it all come from, and even a lot of themes now within the percussion world too, I'm noticing like a lot more women are learning, so I do think that there's a lot of expression of interest, and that it'll keep growing for sure. Neil, as one of the founding members of Brooklyn, Raga Massive, which I see has been around for 14 years, I mean, that's an impressive feat for any business in New York City, and Rushman just said, it's growing, have you seen big changes in the music scene in New York over that time, and how have you made it survive 14 years? Definitely big changes, and I've been in playing music in New York since 98, so really over that time, so many venues have come and gone, honestly, that's that's one of the biggest things, biggest challenges is to find a good

7:35relationship with the venue, and that venue does not close down and stays open, and we've had been fortunate to have our, our, what was once a weekly jam session now monthly in many different venues around the city, currently at Barzac Cafe, beautiful small place in Brooklyn, and you know, that's been really at the pandemic, of course, changed everything a lot. We went from having our weekly concert, at least once a week, probably some many times twice or three times a week, to fully online, and then, you know, we had this very strong community that we had built around these sessions, and you know, that community kind of dissipated in the pandemic, and I've, but I have noticed and been encouraged that there's a new generation of younger musicians who are coming in, and they're participating in our jam, and every, every, every time we have the jam,

8:40there's somebody new, and oh, I just moved to New York, so I have, I have hope for the future, definitely. And Rashney, just in our last 20 seconds, I happen to know that this Friday, there will be a tribute to your fellow top player, the late great Zakir Hussein at Carnegie Hall, who I happened to be a big fan of, and seen twice in the year before he died last year, how much of an impact that his playing have on you? Rashney? Changing to have, hello? Yeah, go ahead, sorry, we've got 10 seconds, so. Yes, it's been a life-changing experience learning of his work, and I grew up as a child, and he's been a dad, listening to him play. I was able to be in his camp that last year, in August, right before he left us, and you know, I know for myself, globally, he's just been such a great influence, and you know, kind of cosmically raised the bar, you know, so we're grateful for all of his life, for us. Rashney, Samlal, and Neil Murgaugh,

9:44Murgaugh, artistic directors of the Brooklyn, Raga Massive, you can find their work at Brooklyn, ragamassive.org, it's been a pleasure having you both on the show. Thank you so much for having us. Allison Stewart's going to be talking about a lot of music too. We told you that she was doing these segments yesterday, like about Chick-Area and other things, but that was a mistake, it's really today, but let's listen to a few more seconds of Raga music heading to the news. Since WNYC's first broadcast in 1924, we've been dedicated to creating the kind of content we know the world needs. Since then, New York Public Radio's rigorous journalism has gone on to win a Peabody Award and a Dupont Columbia Award, among others. In addition to this award-winning reporting, your sponsorship also supports inspiring storytelling and extraordinary music that is free and accessible to all. To get in touch and find out more, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org