Neel Murgai, Sitar, Effects, Vocals
Neel Murgai is a sitarist, overtone singer, daf player, composer and teacher from Brooklyn, NY. He is a co-founder and co-artistic director of the South Asian music collective, Brooklyn Raga Massive. Neel has studied sitar for over 25 years from Pundit Krishna Bhatt. Overtone singing Neel learned from Batuvshin of the Buriyat performance group Uragsha and from Timothy Hill of the Harmonic Choir. He is a graduate of Goddard College's MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts program. His 2020 release “Reorientation” features his compositions with Neel Murgai Ensemble as well as recent experiments in overtone singing and looping. Neel has performed around the world with numerous artists from varying disciplines including, Bill T. Jones, Cyndi Lauper, Wyclef Jean, Andre DeShields, Karsh Kale, Vijay Iyer, Adam Rudolph, Daniel Bernard Romain, Dana Leong, Ellen Stewart, Laraaji, Yuerba Buena, Baba Israel, Raz Mesinai, Mission on Mars, Akim Funk Buddha, Loren Conners, Suzanne Langille, Louis Bellogenis and Cosmo Vinyl. He has performed at venues ranging from the Lincoln Center and Kennedy Center to Late Night with David Letterman 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. Neel was the music director for Brooklyn Raga Massive’s recording of Terry Riley’s classic “In C” and composed their homage to the maestro, “In D”. Neel played in the orchestra for Disney’s musical theater adaptation of “The Jungle Book” directed by Mary Zimmerman. Neel has composed music for many film, TV, video, theater and dance projects including the features, “The Yes Men Fix the World", which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and "A Decent Arrangement" starring Shabana Azmi. His music has been featured in the BBC series, “Holidays in the Danger Zone", and TBS programs, “Women of the Ink", and “Spotlights".
Indofunk Satish, Firebird Trumpet, Effects
Indofunk Satish is a vetran 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). He currently leads multiple musical projects reflecting his varied musical influences, among them: The Nevermind Orchestra, a brass band Nirvana tribute; Radio Free Tibet, an experimental drums/guitar/trumpet trio featuring heavy electronics usage; and Urban Jungle, an intercontinental cinematic production duo. Satish plays a unique trumpet called the Firebird, which has a half-length trombone slide in addition to the normal 3 valves. The slide allows him to accurately reproduce traditional South Indian (Carnatic) gamakas, or melodic ornaments.
Tripp Dudley is a drummer, tabla player and percussionist based out of Brooklyn, NY. His deep groove and virtuosity across multiple instruments have paved the way for his many journeys around the world with many different musicians. At the age of 10 he started playing guitar, and not long after that he began playing classical percussion with his school band. He soon learned how to play drum set and then started the all day playing sessions that would fill his life for many years to come. At 20 Tripp began attending Berklee College of Music, specializing in drum set performance and frame drums. He quickly started studying Indian rhythmic systems which began a very big part of his future path through music. At 22 he started playing tabla, which has been at the core of his musical practice ever since. He went on to learn from tabla maestro Pandit Sameer Chatterjee.
Some of the artists that Tripp has shared the stage and recorded with are: Simrit, Jai Jagdeesh, Bolé, Beth Nielsen Chapman, Snatam Kaur, PHWG, Mirabai Ceiba, Pandit Samir Chatterjee, Dan Weiss, Ezra Landis, Shannon Hayden, Jared May, Maartin Allcock, John Ragusa, Kevin Nathaniel, Salieu Suso, Salif Bamakora, Adam Rudolph’s GO: Organic Orchestra, Matthew Schoening, The Guruganesha Band, Copal, Letha, Highly Kind, and Tablaphilia, to name a few. He also has his own Afro-Indian fusion project called Kaleidhaphonic.
Damon Banks, Electric Bass, Effects
Born and raised in The Bronx, New York Damon Banks has evolved into a "world musician" in the truest sense of the word. Growing up in New York City, he was fully immersed in all aspects of the arts beginning at an early age. Due to this creatively fertile environment, he was enveloped in a wide range of musical genres, artistic approaches and "schools of thought". Damon was fortunate to attend the prestigious High School of Music & Art (as a visual artist) Those 4 years were some of the most inspirational and impactful years of his life (musically and artistically) He attended and graduated from Fisk University (B.A.Music) and afterward decided to pursue a career in music. Since then, he has evolved into an "in-demand” bassist, composer and teaching artist (teaching young creatives is a very important part of his life) Since his college days, Damon has worked with some of the music industry’s most creative artists, innovative musicians and brightest stars. His ability to adapt creatively and remain open-minded has led him into countless collaborations with genre-bending, musical trendsetters worldwide. Some of these artists include:
George Benson, Peter Gabriel, Caetano Veloso, Angelique Kidjo, Chico Hamilton, Hassan Hakmoun, Arto Lindsay, Marc Ribot, Loose Ends, Wadada Smith, The Neville Brothers, Andre de Shields, Bobby Womack, C.J. Chenier, Saul Williams, Noel Pointer, Ronny Jordan, Majek Fashek, KRS-ONE, Lillias White, Brooklyn Raga Massive, Phyllis Hyman, George Howard, Karsh Kale, DJ. SPOOKY, The Weather Girls, Eric Gadd, Min Xiao-Fen, Ntozake Shange, Me’lissa Morgan, Yungchen llamo, "Butch" Morris, Roxane Butterfly, Angela Bofill and Adam Rudolph (to name a few)
Brooklyn Raga Massive is 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.
HISTORY
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.
In keeping with the inclusive spirit of these jam sessions, our collective became an official 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2015, created by musicians, for musicians. Composed of 100+ collaborating artists rooted in South Asian classical music, the collective has since grown to encompass many genres and traditions from around the world.
Brooklyn Raga Massive’s original ensembles have performed across the country at venues such as Lincoln Center, Fotografiska NY, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, Pioneer Works, The Rubin Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Kennedy Center, and more. Through the curation of our signature series, festivals, and educational programs, we have brought raga into conversation with musical traditions coming from Iraq, Cuba, Morocco, Japan and more.This practice of cross-cultural collaboration both reflects the current global landscape and enables BRM to serve as an incubator of expansive, innovative, new genres of music indigenous to Brooklyn.