Published September 2014

Red Baraat Brings Bhangra to Jazz Fest

Written by: Larry Appelbaum, Senior Music Reference Specialist in the Music Division at the Library of Congress, Radio Host, WPFW-FM, Washington, D.C.

I first encountered the Brooklyn-based Bhangra band Red Baraat four years ago while covering the Molde Jazz Festival in Norway. There was no way to avoid them; they played every night from midnight to 3:00am on an out door stage just across the street from my hotel room window. After a couple of nights of sleep deprivation and joyful noise, I was hooked.

Traditional Bhangra music and dance comes from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan, and its infectious rhythms are often played during wedding celebrations. Red Baraat, however, is not your traditional or typical Bhangra band. It’s more of a dhol “n” brass band, merging various Punjabi themes and rhythms with call & response refrains and elements of jazz, hip hop, brass funk and go-go. Remember Missy Elliot’s 2001 smash hit Get Ur Freak On? That instrumental hook you couldn’t get out of your head is rooted in a Bhangra riff.  

Red Baraat is led by Sunny Jain, who sings and plays the dhol; a shoulder-slung, double-headed drum. The group includes sousaphone and five hot horns, as well as drummer Tomas Fujiwara, who’s played DC in recent years with Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson and other avant jazz stars. Those who follow the South Asian rock scene will know Sunny Jain’s work with Junoon, and he appeared in the first Indian Broadway show Bombay Dreams, as well as the Hollywood film The Accidental Husband.  

While Red Baraat has made some impressive recordings, it’s always best to experience them live with an uninhibited audience ready to get up and dance. With any luck, members of the Indian and Pakistani community will make it to the party and show us all how it goes. And for the sake of all the other bands appearing on Saturday, you’d better hope Red Baraat closes the show. When this band cuts loose, nobody wants to follow them.  

For a taste of their live show, you can see a clip on Red Baraat’s website. Other clips may be found on YouTube or Vimeo.

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Larry Appelbaum is a senior music reference librarian and jazz specialist in the Music Division at the Library of Congress, and the long-time host of ‘The Sound of Surprise’ from 4:00-6:00 p.m. as part of WPFW 89.3 FM’s acclaimed Sunday line-up (voted “Best Weekend Radio Lineup” – Washington City Paper, 2014). As a former sound engineer, he transferred, edited and mastered many classical, jazz and folk recordings for commercial release. As a critic, he is a contributor to the books "Jazz: The First Century" (William Morrow, 2000) and "The Encyclopedia of Radio" (Museum of Broadcast Communications 2003). He writes regularly for JazzTimes and other magazines and websites around the world, curates a jazz film series.