The Ragas Live Festival

A lineup of over 50 artists played South Asian classical, jazz, and ambient music for 24 hours straight at Pioneer Works in Red Hook.

- INTERVIEWS BY JEREMY RELLOSA

SAHEL

Musician, Harlem

Did you perform at the festival?

No, but my mentor from Peshawar, Pakistan, played at 3 a.m., and I helped them set up and tune the instruments. It was a great performance.

Do you play an instrument yourself?

I play the rubab. It's a string instrument, and it's different from a lot of other string instruments. You gotta really whack it. It originates from the mountains of Afghanistan; over there, there weren't any amplifiers, so to make it resonate, you need to hit it hard.

Why did you choose the rubab?

My grandfather used to play it, and it's almost a dying instrument. So it's crucial for us to preserve it. It's a very oral tradition, and if even one generation doesn't use it, it's gonna get lost, right?