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RED BARAAT (Bhangra-brass from Brooklyn, New York)
Red Baraat is a pioneering band from Brooklyn, New York. Conceived by dhol player Sunny Jain, the group has drawn worldwide praise for its singular sound, a merging of hard driving North Indian bhangra with elements of hip-hop, jazz and raw punk energy. Created with no less a purposeful agenda than manifesting joy and unity in all people, Red Baraat’s spirit is worn brightly on its sweaty and hard-worked sleeve.
“Their infectious rhythms roll over the audience like a hurricane and let the audience breathe only in a short ballad pause.”
RHEIN MAIN PRESS (GER)
In 2019 Red Baraat toured twice in Europe and performed in clubs and at prestigious festivals like Colours of Ostrava in Czech Republic, Etnosur Festival in Spain, FMM Músicas do Mundo Festival in Sines Portugal, Plai Festival Romania and others in Austria, Czech Republic, Poland and Germany.
Red Baraat’s June 2018 album release, “Sound The People”, hit the top 10 on the World Music Charts Europe and was heralded in the US as the anthem soundtrack for the South Asian diaspora by US hipster, indie-rock magazine.
“The album is full of moments that hit with the force of a spiritual awakening…The funk, ska-punk, and other American forms that make their way into the music are layered intricately within the same threadwork as the ragas on which these songs are pulled from. Each piece is a gesture of cultural harmony, rendering not only genre irrelevant, but the geographic placement of those sounds.”
STEREOGUM (US)
2018 also saw the band touring Kazakhstan, Abu Dabhi, US, Canada and Europe. They headlined the renowned WOMAD Festival in Cáceres, Spain in front of 10,000 people, performed the Vienna Konzerthaus (Philharmonie) in Austria and had the crowd jumping at Rudolstadt Festival in Germany. Red Baraat played in the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Switzerland.
The release of Red Baraat’s 2nd album in 2013, Shruggy Ji, debuted at #1 on the Billboard World Music charts in USA and propelled the band on a world tour that has yet to stop. They’ve performed at Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, WOMAD, globalFEST, Lincoln Center, New Orleans Jazz Fest, along with clubs, theatres, and arts centers. Along the way they sold out rooms as diverse as the Luxembourg Philharmonic and the New York City’s legendary rock club Bowery Ballroom, and performed at the request of The White House (Obama), TED and Olympic Games.
But even as it’s clear that Red Baraat has built a startling history of performances in iconic settings, the band’s bread and butter remains the sweaty clubs, festivals, packed performing arts centers, and college auditoriums that keeps the band on the road all over the world the last several years. It’s here where Red Baraat does what it does best - communing with their audience in a joyful, near hedonistic celebration of music and dance, which tellingly, draws a crowd even more diverse than the players on stage. The universality of what Red Baraat does is undeniable. And this is no happy accident. It is the product of intention and design. Says Jain, “The band…our songs…are addressing the multiplicity of viewpoints,” says Jain. “There’s ‘Zindabad,’ which means ‘Long Live’ in Hindi. In that song, we’re saying that we celebrate life, we celebrate devotion — but we also celebrate agitation and revolution. If we can unite people of all backgrounds and ethnicities to partake in the exuberance of life through the universal language of music, then life is that much sweeter.”
Line-up:
Sunny Jain - dhol/vocals
Sonny Singh - trumpet/vocals
Chris Eddleton - drumset
Jonathan Goldberger - guitar
Lynn Ligammari - soprano saxophone
John Altieri - sousaphone
