Monsoon

Saxophone brothers, Jonathan and Andrew Kay, alongside Bass Veena creator, Justin Gray, created Monsoon Music (www.monsoon-music.com) to express and share their love for Classical Indian Music and Indo-Jazz. They have been traveling to India since 2006, and are among the first to traditionally learn to express the art of North Indian Raga music on their western instruments.
1. What are we interrupting (i.e. what music-related activity are we taking you away from to write this)?
Since living with our North Indian Raga music Guru, Pandit Shantanu Bhattacharyya, in Kolkata for the past 4 years we have experienced not only to play music, but to ‘live’ music. As we have been learning to authentically express the subtle nuances and deep spirituality of the Ragas of North India, we have also adopted the traditional lifestyle of a Raga musician which is life-long journey into the Yoga of music. Waking at sunrise and sitting on the floor with the tanpura (the drone instrument) learning from our Guruji for 10-12 hours a day has become our routine in order to internalize the deepest aspects of this vast music. To unite with the transcendental power of the Ragas and create their penetrating and tangible moods, you must be one with the Raga; you must learn to merge with the spirit of the Ragas.
During our travels around India, we have played music at the snow peaks of the Himalayas, all the way to the ancient Hindu temples of South. Performing in the oldest city in the world, to one of todays most prestigious Music Conferences in Kolkata, our experiences over the past 6 years have challenged us to grow as musicians and artists far beyond our expectations, but more importantly started the life-long journey of discovering ourselves; the essence of what our music is trying to ultimately express.
2. What, if anything, are you most looking forward to as an audience member between now and September 7?
As the heavy monsoon clouds fill the dark sky, we listen to our Guruji sing Mian Ki Malhar, a monsoon Raga, evoking the booming thunder and flashing lightening.
3. How about as a music maker/player?
As the golden sun emerges on the horizon, its light unveiling the new day, the meditative and sublime sounds of the morning Raga Bhairav resound from the bells of our saxophones and strings of the bass, as our performance concludes the all-night music festival in the Indian countryside.
4. What are you already preparing for musically beyond the summer? And (how) do your summer plans tie in with these longer term plans?
Being among the first students of Raga music to receive traditional training to play the Ragas of North India on our western instruments, we will return home to Canada to record our first traditional Raga music album.
We also are recording our Indo-Jazz ensemble, Monsoon, a project that is the culmination of the past 8 years of experience in the realm of creating original music inspired by Indian Classical music and creative Western music.
- The Whole Note- June 7th, 2013

Saxophone brothers, Jonathan and Andrew Kay, alongside Bass Veena creator, Justin Gray, created Monsoon Music (www.monsoon-music.com) to express and share their love for Classical Indian Music and Indo-Jazz. They have been traveling to India since 2006, and are among the first to traditionally learn to express the art of North Indian Raga music on their western instruments.
1. What are we interrupting (i.e. what music-related activity are we taking you away from to write this)?
Since living with our North Indian Raga music Guru, Pandit Shantanu Bhattacharyya, in Kolkata for the past 4 years we have experienced not only to play music, but to ‘live’ music. As we have been learning to authentically express the subtle nuances and deep spirituality of the Ragas of North India, we have also adopted the traditional lifestyle of a Raga musician which is life-long journey into the Yoga of music. Waking at sunrise and sitting on the floor with the tanpura (the drone instrument) learning from our Guruji for 10-12 hours a day has become our routine in order to internalize the deepest aspects of this vast music. To unite with the transcendental power of the Ragas and create their penetrating and tangible moods, you must be one with the Raga; you must learn to merge with the spirit of the Ragas.
During our travels around India, we have played music at the snow peaks of the Himalayas, all the way to the ancient Hindu temples of South. Performing in the oldest city in the world, to one of todays most prestigious Music Conferences in Kolkata, our experiences over the past 6 years have challenged us to grow as musicians and artists far beyond our expectations, but more importantly started the life-long journey of discovering ourselves; the essence of what our music is trying to ultimately express.
2. What, if anything, are you most looking forward to as an audience member between now and September 7?
As the heavy monsoon clouds fill the dark sky, we listen to our Guruji sing Mian Ki Malhar, a monsoon Raga, evoking the booming thunder and flashing lightening.
3. How about as a music maker/player?
As the golden sun emerges on the horizon, its light unveiling the new day, the meditative and sublime sounds of the morning Raga Bhairav resound from the bells of our saxophones and strings of the bass, as our performance concludes the all-night music festival in the Indian countryside.
4. What are you already preparing for musically beyond the summer? And (how) do your summer plans tie in with these longer term plans?
Being among the first students of Raga music to receive traditional training to play the Ragas of North India on our western instruments, we will return home to Canada to record our first traditional Raga music album.
We also are recording our Indo-Jazz ensemble, Monsoon, a project that is the culmination of the past 8 years of experience in the realm of creating original music inspired by Indian Classical music and creative Western music.
- The Whole Note- June 7th, 2013

Indo Inspirations Take Flight in a Visionary New Festival
by Sebastian Cook with photos by Dougal Bichan
2007 has been a particularly rich year in terms of new additions to Toronto’s festival scene. One that may have flown largely under the mass consciousness radar — but is every bit as inspiring, brilliantly and holistically realized — is the Toronto International Indo-Jazz Festival which took place over two nights at Hugh’s Room. I had the pleasure of attending the second evening of this East-West cross-generational musical summit; which featured the incomparable New York-based ensemble Indo-Pak Coalition and rising local outfit Monsoon.
Monsoon is led by tenor saxophonist and festival founder Jonathan Kay, his brother Andrew Kay and bassist/co-founder Justin Gray. I arrived about ten minutes into their set, just as tabla master Ravi Naimpally was launching into a typically virtuosic polyrhythmic solo. This blistering tempo segued into a hypnotically funky raga groove, vocally fronted by the chanting of Shantanu Bhattacharyya, whose young daughter sat a few feet away from her father at the front of the stage playing shakers. To see these veteran sages (a group that also included multi- instrumental wizard George Koller), among the band’s core made up of players from my own generation, and this young child so joyously immersed in the music was to witness the essence of music as a tribal, family experience.
The emotional gravitas reached its peak when Koller introduced “Child’s Eyes” by Doug Riley, a stirring tribute to the recently passed keyboard great which Koller played on the dilruba -- a bowed string instrument whose Indian name so appropriately means “robber of the heart” – over top of a haunting drone. As the song came to a close over heartfelt applause, Andrew Kay introduced a gorgeous soprano sax melody, then came a heavily distorted bass line, and a 15/8 raga that in turn flowed into a sort of Indo-jazz march.
- The Live Music Report

Indo Inspirations Take Flight in a Visionary New Festival
by Sebastian Cook with photos by Dougal Bichan
2007 has been a particularly rich year in terms of new additions to Toronto’s festival scene. One that may have flown largely under the mass consciousness radar — but is every bit as inspiring, brilliantly and holistically realized — is the Toronto International Indo-Jazz Festival which took place over two nights at Hugh’s Room. I had the pleasure of attending the second evening of this East-West cross-generational musical summit; which featured the incomparable New York-based ensemble Indo-Pak Coalition and rising local outfit Monsoon.
Monsoon is led by tenor saxophonist and festival founder Jonathan Kay, his brother Andrew Kay and bassist/co-founder Justin Gray. I arrived about ten minutes into their set, just as tabla master Ravi Naimpally was launching into a typically virtuosic polyrhythmic solo. This blistering tempo segued into a hypnotically funky raga groove, vocally fronted by the chanting of Shantanu Bhattacharyya, whose young daughter sat a few feet away from her father at the front of the stage playing shakers. To see these veteran sages (a group that also included multi- instrumental wizard George Koller), among the band’s core made up of players from my own generation, and this young child so joyously immersed in the music was to witness the essence of music as a tribal, family experience.
The emotional gravitas reached its peak when Koller introduced “Child’s Eyes” by Doug Riley, a stirring tribute to the recently passed keyboard great which Koller played on the dilruba -- a bowed string instrument whose Indian name so appropriately means “robber of the heart” – over top of a haunting drone. As the song came to a close over heartfelt applause, Andrew Kay introduced a gorgeous soprano sax melody, then came a heavily distorted bass line, and a 15/8 raga that in turn flowed into a sort of Indo-jazz march.
- The Live Music Report