BRM Concert + Jam Session ft.Jay Gandhi & Abhik Mukherjee with Sameer Gupta

BRM's Concert and jam session is back in person! For our first in person, live, BRM weekly and jam session we are joined by three artists who rang in the first ever jam session 9 years ago. To celebrate this special occasion, we invite you to a BRM jugalbandhi, a term for a duet concert translating to "entwined twins", featuring Jay Gandhi (bansuri) and Abhik Mukherjee (sitar). Both strong solo performers in their own right, they have also become well known for their enthralling musical chemistry together. Their contrasting yet complementary musical styles offer a compelling composite of melodic and rhythmic approaches and lend themselves to a deep and spontaneous exploration of rasa (emotional essence) and mood. Their repertoire ranges from the introspective and meditative to the joyful, romantic and ecstatic. They will be accompanied by Sameer Gupta on tabla who is known for his pathbreaking cross genre work as both a Jazz drummer and tabla player.

For our inaugural post-covid jam session, BRM Co-Artistic Director and Carnatic violin player Arun Ramamurthy will lead a BRM house band and curate the session. Doors at 7pm, Concert at 7:30pm, Jam Session at 9pm.

Schedule:

7pm Doors

7:30 - 9:00pm Concert

9 - 11:00pm Jam Session

About the Artists

Abhik Mukherjee is a Kolkata-born sitar player of the Etawah-Imdadkhani gharana. He was initiated to sitar at the age of six by his father, Sri Tarit Mukherjee, and Sri Bimal Chatterjee, while simultaneously receiving vocal instruction from Sri Kaylan Bose. He has since taken talim from Pandit Arvind Parikh and Pandit Kashinath Mukherjee, themselves disciples of the legendary Ustad Vilayat Khan. He is a gold medalist in musicology from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, and has also received a scholarship from the Ministry of Culture, India.
Abhik has performed and toured across the world. He currently lives in New York City and is a founding member of Brooklyn Raga Massive, an Indian classical music artists’ collective.

A multifaceted artist, Jay Gandhi is a disciple of the legendary Pandit ‪Hariprasad Chaurasia‬. In addition to having accompanied his Guru for multiple concert tours, he has established himself as a prominent solo performer of Hindustani classical flute.
His parallel explorations in American Jazz have afforded him the honor of performing with such greats as ‪Ravi Coltrane‬, ‪Reggie Workman‬, Jeff “Tain” Watts, as well as of sharing the stage with the legendary ‪Pharoah Sanders‬. Based out of NYC, Jay maintains a busy schedule of touring, teaching and as a founding member of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, a prominent musicians collective.

Sameer Gupta is known as one of the few percussionists simultaneously representing the traditions of American jazz on drumset, and Indian classical music on tabla. Today he lives in Brooklyn, NYC and is actively involved in performing, curating, producing and teaching through various institutions including the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Brooklyn Raga Massive, Carnegie Hall’s Global Encounters and Ragas Live Festival.

Arun Ramamurthy is a versatile violinist, composer and educator based in Brooklyn, NY. A disciple of the celebrated Carnatic violinist brothers, Dr. Mysore Manjunath & Sri Mysore Nagaraj, Arun has carved a niche for himself as a multifaceted artist, performing internationally in both traditional Carnatic and Hindustani settings as well as cross genre creative projects. He has performed with master musicians from around the world like Dr. Balamurali Krishna, Smt. Sudha Raghunathan, Ud. Mashkoor Ali Khan, Reggie Workman, Kenny Werner, Jamey Haddad, Adam Rudolph, Hamid Drake, Marc Cary and more. He leads the Arun Ramamurthy Trio, an ensemble creating original work and bringing a fresh approach to age-old South Indian classical repertoire. Arun is the recipient of the New Jazz Works Commission from Chamber Music America in 2019.  He is a co-founder and active musician and curator for Brooklyn Raga Massive, the popular raga-inspired artist collective. He also created the concert series Carnatic Sundays at Cornelia Street Café, an iconic jazz venue in New York’s West Village.

Note: Proof of vaccination required to attend this event. Negative Covid-19 test taken 24 hours before concert will be accepted.