We hang a maestro of Bulgarian music, Lubomir Smilenov, and hear his incredible performance from Ragas Live Festival 2020 with Matt Moran.

Both performers will be featured at this weekend's Zlatne Ustne Golden Festival January 17-18 in Astoria, Queens. Lubomir Smilenov, born in Bulgaria and raised in New York City, found a unique expression of his heritage through the Kaba Gaida, the traditional Bulgarian bagpipe. He learned the intricate skills of this ancient instrument in Midtown Manhattan, where Kiril Ketev of Smolyan, Bulgaria, led a weekly Gaida workshop.

Today, Lubomir teaches at 101 Kaba Gaidi NYC, where he shares his expertise with students eager to learn the traditional music. He has performed at venues such as the MET Museum, Golden Fest, Hungarian House, and the International Bagpipe Conference, specializing in music from the Rhodope region of Southern Bulgaria. Lubomir strives to immerse his audiences and students in the vibrant musical heritage of the Gaida.

Vibraphonist and tunesmith Matt Moran "plays the vibraphone like a speed-chess master, always darting off into flurries of ingenious, unexpected activity" (Village Voice). Although he was named "Rising Star" on vibraphone by the 2014 Downbeat Critics Poll, Moran is just as often known for his work as the drummer and bandleader for brass band Slavic Soul Party! His career exists in diverse musical environments, from chamber music to jazz to Balkan folk music, and evinces a dedication to music education for incarcerated people.

Moran has released 10 albums as a leader, and performed on nearly 100 albums by other artists, including Sufjan Stevens, Theo Bleckmann, William Parker, Ellery Eskelin, and Luciana Souza. His longtime collaboration with percussionist/composer John Hollenbeck has been documented on 8 recordings by Hollenbeck's Claudia Quintet as well as recordings of his Large Ensemble and chamber music. Lengthy relationships are a hallmark of Moran's style: in addition to Slavic Soul Party!'s 20 years of music making, he has worked for many years with the artists Nate Wooley, Curtis Hasselbring, Daniel Levin, Brian Shankar Adler, Peter Hess, Raif Hyseni, Bojan Vuletic, and Mat Maneri.

For the past decade, Moran has been an educator and performer for Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute, with a special focus on education, creation, and performance for New Yorkers in many different parts of the judicial system. Currently, he co-leads Carnegie Hall's music education program at Sing Sing Correctional Facility.

Moran has a Master's degree in jazz composition from New England Conservatory where he studied with composer and improviser Joseph Maneri, and a Bachelor's degree in jazz composition from Berklee College of Music where he studied with Ed Saindon and Gary Burton.

New York's greatest music bash, the Zlatne Uste Golden Festival is returning to Astoria Queens, January 17-18, 2025. Over 50 ensembles particiapte on several stages and dancefloors, brass bands, polyphonic choirs...Bulgarian, Macedonian, Romani, Turkish, Serbian, Greek, Persian, Klezmer, you name it... after 39 years of this festival it has evolved to become one incredible party.

In this episode Jerry Kisslinger a founding member of Zlatne Uste and Pontic Firebird, shares some burning tracks and we dig in to the roots of this music this wild event.

The most mind-blowing message I ever received was from the multi Grammy winning, ground-breaking kora master, Toumani Diabate, in 2020. Recorded hours earlier in Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa it was a live performance he made with his sons Ahmed Diabate and Balla Diabate to contribute to that year's virtual Ragas Live Festival. "Was it ok?" He asked.

OK? It was astounding!

In this special episode we celebrate the life of Toumani Diabate by sharing the behind the scenes messages behind this miraculous recording that almost never happened. Toumani Diabate's ancestors became musicians in the 13th century and stayed in an unbroken line of griots, or djeles of the Manding empire. He was a 71st generation musician. More than any other Kora player he brought his instrument to the world and touched millions of hearts.

Here are some essential recordings to get you started: Kaira New Ancient Strings with Ballaké Sissoko Ali and Toumani (with Ali Farka Toure) Kulanjan (with Taj Mahal)

This was the second interview we conducted with Zakir Hussain, who passed away on December 15, 2024. More than any other musician who came before him, he brought the tabla to an international stage. His story, like the man, is legend. I hope our conversation encourages you to dig deep into his rich catalog of astounding recordings including his own Making Music, all the Shakti albums, Planet Drum, stunning classical recordings with Ali Akbar Khan, Shiv Kumar Sharma, Hariprasad Chaurasia; his tabla solos with his Ud. Allah Rakah and much more.

He will be missed but his impact will live on.

An unbelievable live performance featuring 2024 Grammy Award winner Ganesh Rajagopalan (violin) and Anantha R. Krishnan (mridangam) as broadcast on WKCR from the Ragas Live Festival at Pioneer Works in 2024. You can hear our conversation after the set on the previous podcast. A virtuoso since childhood Ganesh Rajagopalan has been performing on stage since the tender age of 7 years old. He has been dazzling audiences for 50 years, most recently with John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain and the Shakti ensemble.

The grandson and disciple of mridangam maestro, Shri. Palghat R. Raghu, Anantha R. Krishnan started learning the fundamentals of the mridangam under his uncle, Shri. R. Ramkumar and then began an official tutelage under his grandfather at the age of five. He performed his first concert at the age of seven. During this period, he received many awards from traditional organizations of Carnatic Music in India, including the Best Mridangist Prize from the Music Academy, Madras, a record five times in six years. Also, he was awarded the State of the Arts Award from the New Jersey government twice in 1997-1998 as part of the National Endowment of the Arts’ effort to promote cultural awareness in the U.S.A.

Anantha holds a BA in Western Music and Philosophy from Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Electronic Music and Percussion from Mills College, California. During this time he studied Western percussion under William Winant. Specializing in contemporary 20th century percussion music. He is also a special interest student of tabla under Ustad Zakir Hussain for the past six years.

After an incredible set with Anantha R. Krishnan (mridangam)at Ragas Live Festival, we caught up with THE violin maestro, 2024 Grammy Award winner Ganesh Rajagopalan, for a quick on-air conversation about his journey in music. A child prodigy who began performing at the age of seven, Ganesh rose to stardom performing with legends like tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and guitarist John McLaughlin of Shakti fame as well as for his solo violin work with Oscar-winning Bollywood music director A. R. Rahman and many others.

A memorable performance from Slowspin at the Ragas Live Festival 2024 featruing Zeerak Ahmed (vocals+electronics), Grey Mcmurray (guitar), Marlon Patton (drums) Shahzad Ismaily (bass) This was the 9PM set on October 21st, the 4th set during 24 hours of continuous music at Pioneer Works, in Red Hook Brooklyn.

US-based Pakistani artist, Slowspin (Zeerak Ahmed) has a distinct sound practice grounded in North Indian classical vocal traditions, dream-folk, ambient and experimental-electronic music.

By taking the thumri and recontextualizing it for contemporary music—ambient, dream pop, guitar-based folk—she is excavating this buried alternative history. These centuries-old songs and traditions send down fresh roots into new soil on TALISMAN, still aching for home but open to new possibilities for growth, new histories to write. Much like Ahmed herself, and millions of others in the South Asian diaspora. “They tell me not to plant things where they don’t belong,” Ahmed sings in understated defiance on the closing “Belong.” “What if that’s all I know?” – Pitchfork

US-based Pakistani artist Zeerak Ahmed, who performs under the stage name Slowspin, produces voice-based sculptures, sound installations and uniquely fragile sound collages. Slowspin has a distinct sound practice grounded in North Indian classical vocal traditions, dream-folk, ambient and experimental-electronic music. Poetry and melodies in her mother tongue(s)—Urdu, Farsi, Purbi and English—build new textural soundscapes. Her collaborative album, TALISMAN, opens a world of Slowspin’s uncanny and heart-wrenching refrains, delivering a balm for the migrant’s journey into the unknown: the abyss of love, loss and longing. Since the release of the TALISMAN, she has been performing with the album’s co-producer Grey Mcmurray (Tongues in Trees trio, Beth Orthon, Ali Sethi), Marlon Patton (Lonnie Holley, The Mace Hibbard Quintet) and Grammy nominated multi-instrumentalist, Shahzad Ismaily (Yoko Ono, Laurie Anderson, Love in Exile).

Ud. Bashir Khan (bulbul tarang) and Ud. Feroz Khan (tabla) perform Rag Desh on 10/19/2024 at the Ragas Live Festival 2024 at Pioneer Works. This was a very rare presentation of Raga on the Bulbul Tarang a unique instrument used more often in folk music and light classical from Pakistan and India. The instrument was created in Japan in 1912 based on the concept of combining the mechanics of a typewriter with a musical instrument. By the 1930s the instrument had arrived in India and was adapted in both India and Pakistan to suit their local styles.

Mohammad Bashir Khan, originally from Rajasthan India, is one of the foremost exponents of his instrument, Bubul Tarang. He hails from a family of six generations of artists. As a follower of the Kirana Gharana under maestro Abdul Rehman Khansahib, he has applied his training to this unique instrument and regularly accompanied the highest profile artists including Ustad Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Nursrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pankaj Udas, and Hari Haran. He regularly works with Bollywood movie directors and can be heard in many movies.