From the concert Ragas & Sagas with Yousuf Kerai, held in Greenfield, Massachusetts USA on November 29, 2025 at the LAVA Center downtown. It was a full house in the small venue.
This performance was the second time presenting my show Ragas & Sagas; a concert that features traditional ragas (in this case Jhinjhoti), alongside by original compositions in the Hindustani idiom (Charu Kesi and Never Too Late), original originals (Jacket & Tie and the Peacock) and fascinating tales from the lore of Hindustani music. This was the first collaboration with Yousuf Kerai, a tabla-player originally hailing from Karachi, Pakistan who plays in the Ajrada Gharana style. Yousuf and I first met 10 years ago while he was visiting Bennington.
This album features all of the music performed that night but not the stories. For those, you'll have to attend my concert in person.
Vidhi and I produced this concert in collaboration with the LAVA Center as Root Cellar Sound. I selected the venue because it was small, hopefully not too difficult to sell out (we were just a few people shy of the strict 49 person permitted occupancy) and near by our house. I mistakenly thought they had a stage from the pictures and luckily stopped in to hand them posters. I built some quick stage platforms that would fit in the back of our Honda Fit and that's what we performed on. They worked out great. I joke that if one wants to hear high quality world music in our area, you have to literally build the platform.
This was another milestone for me: a complete Root Cellar Sound production with food, chai, handicrafts and a Joel Veena concert.