Sunny Jain and Red Baraat at the World Music Festival
Feeling that Indian rhythm
Feeling that Indian rhythm
By Jonathan Gramling
Although he grew up in a household in Rochester, New York hearing his mother’s
religious music and his father’s Bollywood cassettes and began playing the drums
when he was 10 years old, Sunny Jain didn’t study Indian music until he was in college
and developed an instant love for the dhol, an Indian drum that serves as the joyous
base for Northern Indian Punjabi music.
Jain has taken those traditional Bhangra rhythms and fused them with Brazilian
music, funk, hip-hop, African music and other musical forms in the repertoire of Red
Baraat, a drum and brass group that he will be bringing to the Wisconsin Union’s World
Music Festival September 17. “Bhangra music is really like the dance and festive
music of Punjab, said Jain during a telephone interview with The Capital City Hues.
“That grew up out of the harvest season when everyone would celebrate by singing and
dancing and used dhols, the Indian drum that is synonymous with Punjabi music and
Bhangra. While everyone was out in the fields, people were playing the dhol and
dancing and singing. It’s about the rhythm, the feel and the joyness of the music.”
It was the joyness of his own wedding that led to the formation of Red Baraat. A baraat
is a dhol and brass band that leads a processional at the beginning of a Punjabi
wedding. “Since all of my friends are musicians, I wanted all of my friends to bring me
in,” Jain said. “So I transcribed some traditional Punjabi music and prop music and I
also wrote my own music and my own wedding. I gave it to my friends and said ‘Can
you bring me in?’ I had 30 friends bringing me in and it was just a crazy party and good
times. The word kind of spread throughout the south side Asian communities that
Although he grew up in a household in Rochester, New York hearing his mother’s
religious music and his father’s Bollywood cassettes and began playing the drums
when he was 10 years old, Sunny Jain didn’t study Indian music until he was in college
and developed an instant love for the dhol, an Indian drum that serves as the joyous
base for Northern Indian Punjabi music.
Jain has taken those traditional Bhangra rhythms and fused them with Brazilian
music, funk, hip-hop, African music and other musical forms in the repertoire of Red
Baraat, a drum and brass group that he will be bringing to the Wisconsin Union’s World
Music Festival September 17. “Bhangra music is really like the dance and festive
music of Punjab, said Jain during a telephone interview with The Capital City Hues.
“That grew up out of the harvest season when everyone would celebrate by singing and
dancing and used dhols, the Indian drum that is synonymous with Punjabi music and
Bhangra. While everyone was out in the fields, people were playing the dhol and
dancing and singing. It’s about the rhythm, the feel and the joyness of the music.”
It was the joyness of his own wedding that led to the formation of Red Baraat. A baraat
is a dhol and brass band that leads a processional at the beginning of a Punjabi
wedding. “Since all of my friends are musicians, I wanted all of my friends to bring me
in,” Jain said. “So I transcribed some traditional Punjabi music and prop music and I
also wrote my own music and my own wedding. I gave it to my friends and said ‘Can
you bring me in?’ I had 30 friends bringing me in and it was just a crazy party and good
times. The word kind of spread throughout the south side Asian communities that
there was this marching band around. There was absolutely no intention of starting a band, but I started getting calls from a few close friends like
‘Hey, I was at your wedding. You had that band. I would like to do it. My sister is getting married next year. Can you put something together and do it?’
I thought sure, why not.”
Four years later, Red Baraat has grown out of the wedding scene and has developed its own unique fusion sound that makes you just want to
get up and dance. “The group slowly developed in terms of its sound and really depended on the players in the band,” Jain said. “When I assembled
them together, I said I had some ideas in mind of what I wanted it to sound like. Really what I was going for was a tribal sound. I just wanted drums
and horns. I didn’t want any amplified instruments. I didn’t want guitars, keyboards or anything. Just for then, I just wanted to go with that tribal, gut
sound, that root feeling of music. We started rehearsing along my originals and transcriptions of baraat music. The sound slowly developed out of
everyone figuring out their role, figuring out exactly how they were going to play with certain instruments and really getting comfortable with the
material. This nine-piece band I’ve been working with for the last 10 months or so, it was just a very random act, almost a godsend.”
Red Baraat has cut its musical teeth playing some clubs and festivals in Brooklyn, New York and is now off on their first tour, playing at World Music
Festivals in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison. Jain feels that the term World Music Festival is somewhat of a misnomer because although it might
conjure up thoughts of indigenous classical music and dance, it is anything but that.
“I think that concept of world music is becoming blurred as the years go on,” Jain said. “World music nowadays should just be global sounds
connected together. If you’re running Brazilian music with Indian music and African music, it is all out of this world, out of America or Africa or India
or Brazil, to just say that a certain type of music like juju music out of Nigeria is world music. I’m sure the Nigerians wouldn’t think it is world music.
They would just think of it as juju music and that’s it. It all relates to how we want to approach looking at what type of music this is. It seems that a
lot of world music has just taken on that genre name for the sake of promotion and putting it out there when in fact it’s just music from another
person’s culture perhaps.”
While Red Baraat has grown out of the Northern Indian Bhangra music tradition, it has grown out of its roots with its fusion with funk, jazz and
many other musical genres to form its own unique sound that demands that your feet start dancing.
‘Hey, I was at your wedding. You had that band. I would like to do it. My sister is getting married next year. Can you put something together and do it?’
I thought sure, why not.”
Four years later, Red Baraat has grown out of the wedding scene and has developed its own unique fusion sound that makes you just want to
get up and dance. “The group slowly developed in terms of its sound and really depended on the players in the band,” Jain said. “When I assembled
them together, I said I had some ideas in mind of what I wanted it to sound like. Really what I was going for was a tribal sound. I just wanted drums
and horns. I didn’t want any amplified instruments. I didn’t want guitars, keyboards or anything. Just for then, I just wanted to go with that tribal, gut
sound, that root feeling of music. We started rehearsing along my originals and transcriptions of baraat music. The sound slowly developed out of
everyone figuring out their role, figuring out exactly how they were going to play with certain instruments and really getting comfortable with the
material. This nine-piece band I’ve been working with for the last 10 months or so, it was just a very random act, almost a godsend.”
Red Baraat has cut its musical teeth playing some clubs and festivals in Brooklyn, New York and is now off on their first tour, playing at World Music
Festivals in Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison. Jain feels that the term World Music Festival is somewhat of a misnomer because although it might
conjure up thoughts of indigenous classical music and dance, it is anything but that.
“I think that concept of world music is becoming blurred as the years go on,” Jain said. “World music nowadays should just be global sounds
connected together. If you’re running Brazilian music with Indian music and African music, it is all out of this world, out of America or Africa or India
or Brazil, to just say that a certain type of music like juju music out of Nigeria is world music. I’m sure the Nigerians wouldn’t think it is world music.
They would just think of it as juju music and that’s it. It all relates to how we want to approach looking at what type of music this is. It seems that a
lot of world music has just taken on that genre name for the sake of promotion and putting it out there when in fact it’s just music from another
person’s culture perhaps.”
While Red Baraat has grown out of the Northern Indian Bhangra music tradition, it has grown out of its roots with its fusion with funk, jazz and
many other musical genres to form its own unique sound that demands that your feet start dancing.
Photo credit: Amy Touchette