Watch and Listen
2020
Highlights
In 2020, our festival broadcast 24 performances from 15 cities in 7 countries reaching over 100,000 viewers. Here is a highlight clip including performances from Toumani Diabate, Terry Riley, Zakir Hussain and Betsayda Machado.
Podcast
Ragas Live Festival began in 2012 as a 24 hour in-studio broadcast from New York City’s WKCR 89.9 FM, the culmination of years of live performances on producer/host David Ellenbogen’s various radio shows. Hundreds of these performances, plus much more from musicians like McCoy Tyner, Yusef Lateef, Zakir Hussein, members of the Meters, Allman Brothers and Steely Dan come out weekly on NYC Radio Podcast.
Hundreds of performances from Ragas Live are available at the NYC Radio Live Podcast.
The Ragas Live Retrospective
We combed through 144 performances and lovingly re-mastered our favorite 24 moments from the Ragas Live Festival.
The Ragas Live Retrospective is 15 and half hours of the greatest performances we’ve presented over the years. It’s available everywhere, but we’re partial to Bandcamp which offers the best deal for artists. If you purchase a copy, 100% goes towards next year’s festival.
In D
The most epic album released by any New York group this century - NY Music Daily
Above is the video for In D, the album we are releasing in conjunction with the 2020 Ragas Live Festival.
In D is Brooklyn Raga Massive’s homage to Terry Riley, the legendary musician and composer credited with launching the genre of minimalism in 1964. This recording was inspired by the correspondence between Riley and members of the Raga Massive after the composer heard the group’s recording of In “C” and reached out to collaborate.
Recorded by a community of 25 musicians, all masked and 6' apart in the midst of the 2020 pandemic in New York City, the joy of making music together for the first time in many moons emerges in these tracks
Acoustic Mandala Project
Acoustic Mandala Project is an ambient project created by David Ellenbogen and Joshua Geisler and is always well received when we play it between songs during the Ragas Live Festival. This Project uses tuning systems drawn from the pure resonances of ancient Indian ragas that have been rarely heard in the West for hundreds of years. These harmonies conform to the true nature of wave motion, and the effect of this truth in sound is instantaneous— a reservoir of depth, space, and peacefulness.