Saturday, May 22, 2010

Red Baraat


Red Baraat is a band we recently came across and they are pretty unique, something we can't say very often. They describe themselves as "the first and only dhol 'n' brass band of its kind in the States melding the infectious North Indian rhythm Bhangra with brass funk and expressing the human spirit through improvisation and a powerful live sound." They are based in Brooklyn, which is where we caught them when they performed at the Brooklyn Museum of Art for Target First Saturdays. The mixture of five horn players (clarinet/saxophone, trumpet, bass trumpet, trombone, sousaphone) and three percussionists makes for a PARTY. To us, it seemed like the Indian music was mixed with New Orleans second line. Their leader, Sunny Jain, is a very enthusiastic performer who keeps the crowd hyped.

We picked up their debut album, "Chaal Baby," last week. Although it is not as exciting as their live show, a real band should be better live and their jazz roots show up well on the recording. Our favorite track, by far, is "Punjabi Wedding Song," but "Tunak Tunak Tun" and "Hey Jamalo" are also really good. They've got a bunch of upcoming dates around NYC and you need to go check these guys out.

www.redbaraat.com

3 comments:

redhead1 said...

There's *NO* clarinet in Red Baraat!!! The horn section is *SOPRANO SAX*, tenor sax, trumpet, trombone, bass trumpet, and sousaphone. If you have the CD, all you had to do was read the liner notes to get your facts straight.... (And if you know enough to get the bass trumpet right, how did you manage to confuse a soprano sax with a clarinet?)

The Early Show said...

When I saw Red Baraat perform, it appeared that the soprano saxophonist played clarinet on at least one song. I was not directly in front of the stage and might have made a mistake. I don't think this possible mistake warranted the tone and punctuation of your response. You are obviously passionate about this group. Are you a member, or a fan like me? When I saw them perform, I liked them enough to buy the CD and write an overwhelmingly positive post about them. You won't encourage many people to do that by responding this way.

Sunny Jain said...

Hey "The Early Show",
I was just alerted of this late last night. I'm the dhol player/leader of Red Baraat and have been emailing around with the rest of the band this morning about the redhead1 post. Just wanted to write and let you know that none of us had anything to do with that post and we're definitely surprised by it as well. While we love all of our fans, we agree with your response.

But moreover, we wanted to thank you for even taking the time to write about us and also for picking up the CD. Please come and say hello the next time you hit one of our shows.

Best,
Red Baraat