Brooklyn Raga Massive

Brooklyn Raga Massive is a 60-member pan-cultural non-profit cooperative alliance between Indian classical musicians in the Brooklyn, N.Y.C. area and other practitioners of the form from many backgrounds. It is a platform for all lovers of raga music — musicians, listeners, and students — to experience the pulse of New York’s fertile raga scene. Brooklyn Raga Massive is managed by artists. It is dedicated to expanding audiences by breaking conventional formalities while genuinely presenting and representing their deep love and appreciation of Indian classical and raga music using top-flight musicians from diverse backgrounds (Karsh Kale, Amali Premawardhana, Dan Weiss, and Tali Rubinstein are among its members).
Founded in November of 2011, Brooklyn Raga Massive has brought music-listening communities together by hosting local events of concerts and lectures, demonstrations, and panel discussions, educational outreach programs, and a two-and-half-year weekly Raga Music Jam Session in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. There are several ensembles within Brooklyn Raga Massive, including Women’s Raga Massive, the Ravi Shankar Tribute, the (John) Coltrane Raga Tribute, Raga Cubana, and In C, name after Terry Riley’s signature composition. Brooklyn Raga Massive recorded Terry Riley in C for Northern Spy. Released in October 2017 and universally acclaimed, it was chosen by several publications as one of the most outstanding albums of the year. In 2019, they teamed with composer, improviser, and master percussionist Adam Rudolph’s Go: Organic Orchestra for the joint double-length release Ragmala: A Garland of Ragas, which combined over 40 musicians in a series of Rudolph-conducted pieces that combined jazz, fusion, Indian, Latin, and African musics. ~ Thom Jurek