When a sitar weaves around a sax solo that’s handed off to a sliding trumpet, you’ve entered the realm of Indofunk. Named for his signature musical style, Indofunk plays the firebird trumpet, a 3-valved trumpet equipped with a trombone-like slide. He hosted an open Raga Jazz Jam at the Fifth Hammer Brewing Co’s Brewside Lounge in Long Island City last week.

In Indian music, a raga is a melodic framework for improvisation. Indofunk distilled it simply: each piece is a raga because it sticks to a single key. Jazz, too, is improvisation, based on its own conventions and instrumentation. Put raga and jazz together and you have an improvised meeting of eastern and western sounds.

A core quartet set the tone with two jazz fusion classics: Alice Coltrane’s “Journey in Satchidananda” flowing straight into Miles Davis’s “In a Silent Way/It’s About That Time”. Then the real jam began. Musicians from the crowd answered the invitation to step into the ever-shifting lineup with an eclectic array of instruments—sitar, guitars, saxophones, vibraphone, trumpet, bass, drums, and a temple block tapped by a seated audience member. While the guitars and pianos often blended together when not soloing, the sitar cast an unmistakably pensive and mysterious aura over every jam.

Ravi Shankar once wrote that “each raga has its own character, color and mood which build an atmosphere appropriate to the time of day or night, season or occasion.”  At Fifth Hammer, the character, color and mood of each jam came from the rotating cast of musicians who kicked it off. A drummer would lay down a funk beat, a guitarist would repeat a bluesy lick, or a sitar would strike an ominous chord as the other players settled around the new groove. The energy fluctuated as each player figured out in real time what to contribute without stepping on their neighbor’s toes. There were moments of magic when everything clicked, and also inevitable miscues when players weren’t sure whose turn it was to solo or when to yield or step forward.

With so many cooks in the brewery, Indofunk acted as conductor in the eye of the storm. His hands rose and fell to signal a pause, gently pressing downwards to quiet everyone. A beckoning finger coaxed solos and urged certain musicians to hold the groove while others fell away. He also led with his horn, initiating changes in dynamics through his own volume and providing a focal point for the other musicians to follow. The bright sound of the firebird trumpet cut through the sonic collage when the music started drifting, and Indofunk’s ability to slide notes with it put an emphatic punch on the peak energy moments.

This Raga Jazz Jam ran the gauntlet from tight stomping to loose noodling as instruments came and went. At times, it leaned toward Indo raga; other times, it swung back to funky jazz. Though Indofunk called an official end to the “performance”, musicians were still jamming when I left the brewery—fitting for a night of open-ended improvisation.