Jonathan Kay is an internationally recognized cross-cultural multi-instrumentalist, hailing from Toronto, Canada. He graduated from Humber College as a saxophone player in 2004 with Honours in Jazz Studies. In search of non-western ways of musical knowing, Jonathan formally studied North Indian Raga music in Kolkata, India, and Japanese shakuhachi music in Kyoto, Japan. Based on the integration of these contemplative musical traditions with that of experimental improvisation, Jonathan has been recognized for creating a distinctive and compelling voice in contemporary improvisation and composition.
In 2008, Jonathan moved to Kolkata, and while living there for 10 years studied North Indian classical raga music through the voice and saxophone with his guru, Pandit Shantanu Bhattacharyya, the esraj (the rare version designed by Ranadhir Roy), with Sri Abir Singh Khangura. Jonathan innovated a customized saxophone tuned specifically for Raga music, called the shrutiphone, and is among first to perform the full form of solo Raga music on the saxophone at a professional level on some of the most prestigious stages in India. He has performed with many Indian maestros including; Subhankar Banerjee, Rashid Khan, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Bickram Ghosh, Tanmoy Bose, Tejendra Majumdar, Ronu Majumdar, Subhen Chatterjee, Subhajyoti Guha, Sougata Roy Chowdhury, Prattyush Banerjee and Ranajit Sengupta.
In Canada, Jonathan has been cultivating cross-cultural music based on his unique experiences and is a band leader of 3 innovative and award winning ensembles; Juno-nominated Monsoon (Indo-Jazz ensemble), Monsoon Trio (ensemble of Indian music on Western instruments) and Kayos Theory (experimental transcultural improvising ensemble). Jonathan has performed with these ensembles in Canada, India, USA and Japan and has been fortunate to perform alongside some of the world’s leading Jazz musicians including; David Liebman, Pat LaBarbera, Tony Malaby, Jim Black, Seamus Blake, Dan Weiss, Ingrid Jensen, Daniel Carter, David Mott, and Mike Murley.
In 2018 Jonathan moved to San Francisco, California to pursue graduate studies in the department of East-West Psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies. Graduating with a Masters in 2020, Jonathan is currently a PhD student in the same department studying transcultural music philosophy under the supervision of Dr. Debashish Banerji. His is doing an autoethnographic dissertation which explores the role of the posthuman musician as a nomadic agent in sono-rituals precipitating sound bodies in transindividual becomings. As a scholar-practioner in arts-based research, Jonathan’s work is based on the psycho-cosmological models of Sri Aurobindo and Gilles Deleuze/Felix Guattari, which has inspired arts-based research projects such as, Sonic Mandalas of Becoming: An Experimental Sono-Poetic Arts-based Inquiry.
While living in California, Jonathan continued to refining his musical composition skills under renowned composer, author and mentor William Allaudin Mathieu. Learning under Mathieu has helped Jonathan musically integrate of his cross-cultural musical experiences with his studies in East-West philosophy and has prepared him to approach developing music and academic ideas about transcultural musicality.
My Journey
As a musician, I experience the world as universal vibration, in which all of life’s movements symbolically become inner musical-images.
As a spiritual seeker, I am a mystic traveler of the subtle worlds of vibration passionately searching to reconcile the One and the Many; the duality of our surface psychological existence with the intuitive call of the Infinite Oneness, an integral Truth of Harmonic Unity.
I am a creative improviser, who is aiming to go beyond the limited surface creations of the mind and intellect by cultivating a contemplative receptive poise.
I am a traditionally trained Classical Indian musician, who is in search of freedom within the form which leads to the mystical realms of the being-in-becoming.
