Cosmic Boogie

Drums /Percussion/Accordion/Vocals

Muruga Booker, born, Steven Bookvich '42, has been playing music and drums since the age of 3 when he knew he would be a musician and artist. At 6 he took his first lessons with Misha Bishkoff who was also a teacher of Gene Krupa.

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At the age of 16 young Steven played on his first album with Reverend Heart and the Musical Hearts of Detroit's liberty temple.

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With the Low Rocks, they would garner a regional hit with "Blueberry Jam" in 1960 when he was only 17. He has been making music since!

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Muruga performed at the 1969 Woodstock Festival with Tim Hardins band, is a P-Funk All Star, recorded with Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, and with Weather Report on "Sweet Nighter" as well as leading his own bands and producing music from his home studio in Ann Arbor, MI.

Guitar/Vocals

Born and raised in Detroit Michigan, Tony “Strat” Thomas started out playing a six-string razor in high school. After Thomas’ mother saw his talent she bought him a Stratocaster Guitar. The rest is history.

Early on Tony played in the reggae band Onyx before George Clinton gave Thomas a shot to play in the studio with the Sterling Silver Starship leading him to perform with Parliament Funkadelic for over 20 years including recording his first P-Funk solo on “The Agony of Defeat”.

Currently Tony plays guitar in Muruga Cosmic Boogie and is featured on the Booker & Bridges DaLight record World Jamdemic.

Vocals/Percussion

Shakti Ma was born to a Detroit area Polish-Italian family and from a young age she new she wanted to be a singer. Shakti was influenced by Barbara Streisand but also bands such as Aerosmith and Sly & The Family Stone.

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Shakti has been recording with Muruga since the 80's when she was the lead singer in the band Muruga & The Soda Jerks who were produced by George Clintons "Uncle Jam" records.

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Shakti Ma has recorded on projects involving George Clinton, Jerry Garcia, Sly Stone, James Gurley, and Baba Olatunji as well as recording on many of Muruga's productions on his Musart and Media Stream labels.

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Shakti currently provides lead vocals for Muruga Cosmic Boogie and can also be heard on the Booker & Bridges DaLight album "World Jamdemic"

Benjamin Piner/ Bass,Tenor Bass
Benjamin Piner was born in Miami Florida and was introduced to music from his mother. She showed him how to tune a guitar and taught him to play chords and Boogie bass lines.
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He moved to Ann Arbor, MI in 1968 and began to study guitar and bass and played in various bands over the years.
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Benjamin is a four time nominee for The Detroit Music Awards.

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He met Muruga Booker in 2011 and they have worked on several projects with the likes of Perry Robinson and Michael Hampton to name a few and he currently plays Tenor Bass for Muruga Cosmic Boogie.

Bass Bottom

Doug was born in Perrysburg Ohio and started playing the guitar at the age of thirteen. Soon after he started playing bass guitar and he developed an interest in early British and US Garage Rock.

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He moved to Ann Arbor Michigan where he became a session bass player for acts such as James Gurley, Perry Robinson, Dick Wagner, members of P-Funk, and Ann Arbors "Beatnik Hippies" and the Ska band "Hullabaloo".

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As one of the two bass players in Cosmic Boogie Doug adds the driving bass bottom groove in order to direct the elements to produce the desired energy to Rock!