1973 studied guitar and violin with Pandit Vasant Rai.

Participated in Pandit Ravi Shankar's recording "An Introduction to Indian Music" with Gyan Prakash Ghosh, and the first all night concert of Indian classical music in the west at St. John the Divine in NYC, organized by Pandit Ravi Shankar.

Since 1976, traveled numerous times to India, and was initiated into the art of sarod playing by Pandit Vasant Rai, who put his hand on the sarod and accepted him in the time honored guru-shishya pampara.

From 1983 began to study with Pandit Ravi Shankar in New Delhi India. Continued studying, performing, and traveling between New York, Europe, and India.

1993-2003 Recorded for numerous CDs, films, radio and television programs, as well as countless performances around the world in the traditional Indian style, his own unique interpretation of this ancient system and many experimental projects.  He performed with his guru Pandit Ravi Shankar in Carnegie Hall, NYC, September, 1998.

ENSEMBLE

Along with his own world music projects and his group Tranquility Base, SJ has performed and recorded with a multitude of musicians of many different styles throughout the world: Nicky Skopelitis, Bill Laswell, Dave Torn, Stanley Jordan, Lee Boice, Ustad Sultan Khan,Hassan Nahas, Jessie Newman, Steve Gorn, Jamie Hadad, Eric Zang, Satish and Indofunk, Esiet Esiet, Ira Coleman, Mark Johnson, Bob Franchescini, Craig Handy, Chester Washington, Lucas Ligeti, Dafna Naphtali, Hans Tammen, Bebo Baldan, The Hungarian groups Makam, Tin Tin Quartet, and the Calcutta Trio, Zoltan Lantos, Karoly Binder, Indian Jazz players Madhav Chari, Louis Banks, Braz Gonzales, Steve Law, Vicky Singh, Rikki Ray, Badal Roy, Italian Harpist Vincenzo Zitello, Paulino Dallaporta, singers Sandhya Sanjana, Warren Senders, Chris Rael and Church of Betty, Jay Kishor, Dhrupadia Amelia Cuni, Nigerian Yinka Davies, Tunesian Mona Amari, Mongolian Sainko, Deidre Radford, Sabrina Serini, Narah and many others.

TABLA

An acknowledged master of the rhythmic system known as Tala, SJ has performed and recorded with some of the top players in the world: Zakir Hussain, Anindo Chatterjee, Shankar Chatterjee, Faiyaz Khan, Ray Spiegel, Federico Sanesi, Peter Szalai, Fazal Quereshi, Anubrata Chatterjee, Amit Thakur, Prabhu Edouard, Udai Majumdar, Bill Buchen, Badal Roy, Viswanath Misra, Paul Lake, Malazeem Hussain Khan, Ajit Bannerjee, Sapal Jijina, John Boswell and many others.

PERFORMANCE