Raga Marathon
Friday, May 19, 2017
8:00 AM
OUR ALL-DAY, IMMERSIVE GUITAR MARATHON CELEBRATING SOUTH ASIAN MUSIC
Brookfield Place Winter Garden
230 Vesey St, New York, NY 10281
http://www.artsbrookfield.com/event/new-york-guitar-festival/
Tickets: FREE
It’s a first in Festival history: A marathon devoted entirely to... ragas! The Winter Garden at Brookfield Place will host this FREE-ADMISSION all-day event. In Hindustani classical music, melodies and modalities are thought to reach full potency at a particular hour, in tune with the Earth on its axis. On Friday, May 19 , ragas will flow from morning until midnight at Brookfield Place’s Winter Garden . At 8 AM, Debashish Bhattacharya, one of the world’s pre-eminent slide guitarists, begins the Marathon with a raga specifically for early morning. At noon, the sarodist Anupam Shobhakar performs a raga made for midday; at 5 PM, a power trio of guitarist Gyan Riley, sitarist Krishna Bhatt, and percussionist Dan Weiss takes over with an early evening raga; and Bhattacharya returns at 7.
Silent cinema comes back to NYGF, as part of the Raga Marathon, with an 8:30 PM screening of the 1929 film A Throw of Dice: A Romance of India , accompanied by a new score composed especially for the Festival by guitarist Rez Abbasi and performed by his quartet. The movie’s based on a story found within the Sanskrit epic, The Mahābhārata . Capping the event, DJ Rekha, who brought Bhangra to SoHo, spins an in-the-moment mash-up of ragas, EDM, and Punjabi pop from 10:00 until midnight. Her special guests include dancers, a VJ, dhol drummers and other Indian percussionists. Guitarists from the day will sit in, too.
Run of show:
8 AM – 9 AM
Morning Raga
Performing: Debashish Bhattacharya, slide guitar
Samir Chatterjee, tabla
Noon – 1 PM
Noon Raga
Performing: Anupam Shobhakar, sarod
Dan Weiss, tabla
5 PM – 6 PM
Early Evening Raga
Performing:
Gyan Riley, guitar
Krishna Bhatt, sitar
Dan Weiss, tabla
7 PM – 8 PM
Evening Raga
Performing: Debashish Bhattacharya, slide guitar
Samir Chatterjee, tabla
8:30 PM – 10 PM
WORLD PREMIERE: A Throw of Dice Silent - Film with Live Music
Performing: Rez Abassi Quartet
Rez Abbasi - electric & acoustic guitars, sitar - guitar
Pawan Benjamin - tenor & soprano saxophones, basuri flutes
Jennifer Vincent - acoustic bass, cello
Rohan Krishnamurthy - ghatam, mridangam, drumset
10:00 PM – Midnight
Performing: DJ Rekha, with special multimedia guests. Guitarists featured earlier in the Marathon will sit in.
* * *
Debashish Bhattacharya - This slide guitar master’s 2017 CD, Hawaii To Calcutta, celebrates the life & music of Hawaiian guitar legend Tau Moe, imbuing island pop with traces of the mystery in ragas.
Rez Abbasi - Currently a leader of at least four ensembles, guitarist Rez Abbasi explores the intersections of jazz-rock, Carnatic music of South India, and the on-going influence of Jim Hall.
DJ Rekha - The founder of Basement Bhangra, DJ Rekha introduced Punjabi folk music & dance to the NYC club scene, seamlessly blending South Asian traditions with house and hip-hop.
Krishna Bhatt - Sitar master Krishna Bhatt studied with Ravi Shankar. Specializing in Rajasthani ragas & folk melodies from Northern India, he divides the year between NYC and his native Jaipur.
Anupam Shobhakar - Equally at home in worldbeat and Indian classical, Anupam Shobhakar plays sarod, a fretless stringed instrument that dates back centuries, and jams with NYC jazz musicians.
Gyan Riley - Composer/guitarist Gyan Riley erases boundaries between jazz, contemporary classical, and Asian music. He’s recorded with tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain on their CD Melismantra.
