Indian Jazz Journey: The Meeting Point of Raga and Jazz
Inside the Musical Conversation Between Mahesh Kale and George Brooks
Written by Aditi Walujkar
There is a common, comfortable habit of looking at music through the lens of its geography. We map genres by their borders: Hindustani classical belongs to the ancient, lineage-bound spaces of India; Jazz belongs to the gritty, neon-lit clubs of New York and Oakland. We focus heavily on the structural chasms—the strict mathematical precision of a raga versus the complex harmonic progressions of Western jazz theory.
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“Music is to be experienced. It is not supposed to be understood... When you eat food, you just relish the taste, you don’t think of the ingredients. Just sit back, experience, and if you like it, it's for you.” — Mahesh Kale |
But if you look past the technical vocabulary, you find something deeper. At their absolute core, both traditions are obsessed with the exact same thing: the profound, unpredictable magic of spontaneous creation. It is this shared, improvisational soul that brings vocal virtuoso Mahesh Kale and master saxophonist George Brooks back together every summer in the Bay Area at the Stanford Jazz festival — reigniting a cross-cultural conversation that has been beautifully evolving for years.
"I think my collaboration with Mahesh ji did click right away. He's a fantastic singer and a great performer so something very special always happens when we are together. I believe it was Zakir Hussain that first suggested we get together. He has a good sense about these things." — George Brooks |
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“George ji is a very wise man. Being almost my dad’s age, he brings a lifetime of experience and wisdom. Having learned Indian classical music under Pandit Pran Nath from a young age, he has a deep understanding of the tradition, while also being a master jazz saxophonist. There is a natural familiarity with George — a friendship and camaraderie that creates a wonderful baseline from which conversations flow. He is my go-to person for many things; I remember calling him from Italy once just to help me pick cheese! He is simply a wonderful human being. Even if we were not collaborating musically, I would still enjoy talking to him. And because we are musicians, those conversations naturally find their way back to music, enriched by his wisdom and expertise.” — Mahesh Kale |
Parallel Foundations, Converging Paths
The two masters behind this musical collaboration did not arrive at this intersection by accident. They built their foundations in rigorous, immersive traditional training, yet both kept their windows wide open to the rest of the world.
For Mahesh Kale, music never existed in silos. While deeply grounded in traditional khyal and semi-classical forms, his formative years included an active curiosity about how global genres interact. When he moved to the United States for his higher education at UC Santa Barbara, he deliberately stepped outside the engineering labs to absorb jazz improvisation, Middle Eastern ensembles, and African-American popular music.
"Just like Indian classical music has a bandish," Mahesh ji observes, "Jazz has a motif—a refrain that you keep on improvising and going back to. That made me realize that jazz is a highly improvisational art, and that would be a good common place to converse."
On the other side of that conversation is George Brooks, whose saxophone now feels "as natural as talking." George’s journey began in New York, deeply immersed in blues and classical structure, leading him to the New England Conservatory. But a pivotal undergraduate course in Indian classical music completely opened him up to a new form of music. He began listening to the timeless recordings of Indian Classical music masters like Bhimsen Joshi and Ali Akbar Khan. The real shift occurred in 1980, when George traveled to India and began studying the khyal vocal style directly under the legendary Pandit Pran Nath. It wasn’t a passing novelty; it was a profound spiritual and artistic grounding. And thus he started attempting his initial cross-cultural compositions.
The Recipe of Co-Creation
When dealing with two massive musical legacies, some musicians often fall into the trap of "fusion"—simply singing a traditional melody over a Western beat. True collaboration, however, requires reshaping the entire space. George and Mahesh treat every year's performance as an evolving canvas. Joining them this summer is the virtuoso sarangi artist Sabir Khan—son of the legendary Sultan Khan— marking a vivid dialogue between voice, saxophone, and the bowed resonance of the sarangi. Returning to the stage is the brilliant "raga pianist" Utsav Lal, alongside the fierce energy of Bay Area-based Afghan tabla player Eman Hashimi, innovative visionary Michael Manring on electric bass, and versatile master percussionist Greg Ellis.
Sharing the Moment of Creation
For the very first time, Indian Jazz Journey will be hosted at Stanford University's state-of-the-art Bing Concert Hall—an award-winning venue celebrated for its exceptional acoustics and intimate design. Its distinctive terraced amphitheater layout surrounds the stage with seating that wraps completely around the performers, creating an unusually immersive experience with virtually no distant “back row.” Designed to bring artists and audiences closer together, Bing provides an extraordinary setting for a musical conversation as intimate and expansive as Indian Jazz Journey.
"I don't just walk on stage when the concert starts," says Mahesh ji. "I enter the auditorium early. I breathe with it. I spend time with it. The auditorium space, the audience—all of us co-create the music. The responses, the sound, the decorum... they bring in a lot."
The two masters behind this musical collaboration did not arrive at this intersection by accident. They built their foundations in rigorous, immersive traditional training, yet both kept their windows wide open to the rest of the world.
For Mahesh Kale, music never existed in silos. While deeply grounded in traditional khyal and semi-classical forms, his formative years included an active curiosity about how global genres interact. When he moved to the United States for his higher education at UC Santa Barbara, he deliberately stepped outside the engineering labs to absorb jazz improvisation, Middle Eastern ensembles, and African-American popular music.
"Just like Indian classical music has a bandish," Mahesh ji observes, "Jazz has a motif—a refrain that you keep on improvising and going back to. That made me realize that jazz is a highly improvisational art, and that would be a good common place to converse."
On the other side of that conversation is George Brooks, whose saxophone now feels "as natural as talking." George’s journey began in New York, deeply immersed in blues and classical structure, leading him to the New England Conservatory. But a pivotal undergraduate course in Indian classical music completely opened him up to a new form of music. He began listening to the timeless recordings of Indian Classical music masters like Bhimsen Joshi and Ali Akbar Khan. The real shift occurred in 1980, when George traveled to India and began studying the khyal vocal style directly under the legendary Pandit Pran Nath. It wasn’t a passing novelty; it was a profound spiritual and artistic grounding. And thus he started attempting his initial cross-cultural compositions.
The Recipe of Co-Creation
When dealing with two massive musical legacies, some musicians often fall into the trap of "fusion"—simply singing a traditional melody over a Western beat. True collaboration, however, requires reshaping the entire space. George and Mahesh treat every year's performance as an evolving canvas. Joining them this summer is the virtuoso sarangi artist Sabir Khan—son of the legendary Sultan Khan— marking a vivid dialogue between voice, saxophone, and the bowed resonance of the sarangi. Returning to the stage is the brilliant "raga pianist" Utsav Lal, alongside the fierce energy of Bay Area-based Afghan tabla player Eman Hashimi, innovative visionary Michael Manring on electric bass, and versatile master percussionist Greg Ellis.
Sharing the Moment of Creation
For the very first time, Indian Jazz Journey will be hosted at Stanford University's state-of-the-art Bing Concert Hall—an award-winning venue celebrated for its exceptional acoustics and intimate design. Its distinctive terraced amphitheater layout surrounds the stage with seating that wraps completely around the performers, creating an unusually immersive experience with virtually no distant “back row.” Designed to bring artists and audiences closer together, Bing provides an extraordinary setting for a musical conversation as intimate and expansive as Indian Jazz Journey.
"I don't just walk on stage when the concert starts," says Mahesh ji. "I enter the auditorium early. I breathe with it. I spend time with it. The auditorium space, the audience—all of us co-create the music. The responses, the sound, the decorum... they bring in a lot."
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The iconic Bing Concert Hall — Known for its world-class acoustics and striking vineyard-style design, the hall surrounds performers with audiences on all sides, creating an immersive experience with virtually no distant “back row" where every seat feels close to the music — providing an extraordinary setting for a musical conversation as intimate and expansive as Indian Jazz Journey 2026. |
In an era increasingly dominated by digital screens, algorithm-driven playlists, and artificial simulations, there is something irreplaceable about witnessing a live, unscripted artistic risk. As George Brooks beautifully puts it:
"No AI can compete!,” says George ji. “You can listen to recordings, you can watch YouTube but there's nothing quite like sharing the moment of creation… that's what makes these events so special."
On Sunday, June 21st, 2026, the Stanford Jazz Festival and Indian Classical Music and Arts (ICMA) Foundation will host this remarkable concert. It is a rare chance to step away from the noise of daily life and simply come together to experience when Indian ragas, rhythms, and jazz improvisation come together in one open-hearted collaboration.
Event Details
"No AI can compete!,” says George ji. “You can listen to recordings, you can watch YouTube but there's nothing quite like sharing the moment of creation… that's what makes these events so special."
On Sunday, June 21st, 2026, the Stanford Jazz Festival and Indian Classical Music and Arts (ICMA) Foundation will host this remarkable concert. It is a rare chance to step away from the noise of daily life and simply come together to experience when Indian ragas, rhythms, and jazz improvisation come together in one open-hearted collaboration.
Event Details
- Concert: Indian Jazz Journey ft. Mahesh Kale & George Brooks
- Date/Time: Sunday, June 21, 2026, 4 PM
- Venue: Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University Campus
