BRRRUUUUAHHH!! If you have heard Sunny Jain's band Red Baraat, you have likely danced, shook your head and did some serious Bollywood bhangra to these crazy fun dhol and brass band! This NYC based group gets the motor runnin' with fresh beats, classic Hindi songs that your parents listened to on cassettes with a serious dance party/explosive stage presence! This is Sunny's world and BrooklynPBJS was just living in it...
PBJS: Sunny, tell us when you started playing music and what inspired you to make this your career?
SJ: I remember being 4 and air-tabla’ing to my Moms bhajans (religious song) and also air drumming to my older siblings’ Top 40 mix. I started learning symphonic percussion at age 10 and fell in love with jazz at 13 when I started studying drum set privately with my main mentor, Rich Thompson. From there, it’s been a beautiful journey hearing, studying and playing all types of music with musicians from all walks of life. I guess it was just my genetic make-up that took an interest to the sounds I heard at an early age and once you’re bit by the bug, there’s no turning back.
PBJS: Bum. Bum. Bum. ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST! Anyway,we love the name "Red Baraat" bc anybody who has been to a GOOD Baraat can relate to your music-- is this what inspired you?
SJ: The band actually got its start from my own wedding 5 years ago, before it was even named Red Baraat. In late 2008, I put together a 9-piece band (Red Baraat) that took the wedding, celebratory music of baraats to another place by incorporating funk, soca, jazz, Brazilian and go-go music. So definitely the baraat term comes from that tradition and well red, because it’s my favorite color, it’s the color of love, fire and excitement, which is the essence of the band.
PBJS: Red Baraat definitely sheds love, fire and excitement! You guys often play at one of our favorites BARBES-- in a small confined room in the back, we need to get you guys out side on the streets- anything like that coming up?
SJ: Well, we still do a bunch of wedding baraats, but obviously those are private events. We did a great gig last year at Lincoln Center that was outside and while we can work as a marching band and often do, our energetic sound is on full display when we are stationary and have our drum set player Tomas Fujiwara.
Adding the drum set to dhol, percussion, sousaphone and 5 horns, makes for a heavy, heavy sound! In fact, we’ll be at Lincoln Center on July 8th with DJ Rekha, part of Midsummer Night Swing, their first every Bhangra party!
PBJS: What is on Sunny Jain's iPod?
SJ: It switches often, but currently: Rebirth Brass Band, The Phoenix, Steve Reich’s “Different Trains”, Introducing Nitin Sawhney, and Bob Marley’s “Keep on Shanking.”
PBJS: Oh my, you did FELA! We LOVE FELA!. How was this experience and did you bring some Indian beat into this beautiful Nigerian story?
SJ: FELA!, the Broadway show is fantastic, but no I did not bring some Indian beat to it, at least not consciously, ha ha. I was subbing for the percussionist and friend, Dylan Fusillo. It’s really a great show with awesome music and dancing and Sahr Ngaujah, who plays Fela is unbelievable. Highly recommended!
PBJS: Tell us about the New Yorker in Sunny Jain-- what are your favorite parts of living in the best city in the world?
SJ: I’m really loving my neighborhood spots in Clinton Hill/Fort Greene, Brooklyn. One of my favorite restaurants here, and really in all of the boroughs, is Abistro, a French-Sengalese place that serves up the mostly amazing plates with ridiculously tasty sauces. It’s also BYOB and they substitute practically everything with tofu, which works great for me because I’m vegetarian.
PBJS: Any Indian restaurant reco's-- we are always looking for new hot spots.
SJ: Punjabi 5-star Deli in Long Island City. Slamming late at night. I’m talking after 1am.
PBJS: Sometimes I play your music when I am in the shower and find myself doing bhangra with shampoo in my hair...If you ever need any back up dancers, will you call us?
SJ: Hells yeah! I hope you continue coming to our show and be our front-up dancer! We feed off our audiences’ vibes and we love it when people are dancing.
PBJS: Any new projects coming down the line that we should keep our eyes/ears peeled for?
SJ: I actually just released my 3rd jazz CD, called “Taboo”. It features my core quartet, pianist Marc Cary, guitarist Nir Felder, bassist Gary Wang, as well as 6 different vocalists: Achyut Joshi, Sheetal Karhade, Samita Sinha, Shayna Steele, Sachal Vasandani and YaliniDream. The compositions are inspired by ghazals and the lyrics address issues such as sexual orientation, violence and inequality upon women and the juxtaposition of religions. The lyrics are by Ali Mir, Ifti Nasim, Kishwar Naheed, Vikram Seth, and Erin Thomas. We are having our CD release concert on Thursday, June 10th at Joe’s Pub. You can stream the full album here: www.sunnyjain.bandcamp.com.
PBJS: If you had a theme song that played every time you walked into a room, what song do you envision?
SJ: The theme song to Chips! Ha ha.
TO FIND OUT WHEN YOU CAN SEE RED BARAAT www.redbaraat.com
Pick up/Download Sunny's newest album: TABOO www.sunnyjain.bandcamp.com
