Friday, January 13, 2012

Red Baraat @ LPR 1/5/12

Finally!  I have been wanting to see them for a while.  They definitely lived up to the reputation!  It was hipster meets Afrobeat meets Indian meets hiphop.  The intensity!  The phenomenal musicians!  Tomas Fujiwara is on the drumkit.  I see him a lot with Mary Halvorson.  I didn't know any of the others but they are all worth looking for in other guises.

Every moment was stellar.  They sometimes try to get people to do a specific dance or call and response sing-along, but if the crowd doesn't do it, it's not a big deal.  The crowd was into the call and response sing-along.  Usually those aren't that great for me, but this particular song caused my jaw to drop for most of it.  There was something extra special about what they were playing.

Everything was so good.  At times it was hard to take attention away from the sousaphone.  The trombone was killer.  They have a trumpet and a bass trumpet.  The 3 horns were up front on one side of Sunny Jain and the baritone and soprano saxophones were on the other side.

Sunny Jain is the leader and kicks butt on the dhol drum.  Tomas is on the drum kit and there's another standing percussionist with some drums.

I hope it stays fresh for me and doesn't get old.  This is an awesome band and I need to make a point to stay up to see them more often.  They are definitely a late night band.

The band (from the website):
Sunny Jain - dhol / MC
Rohin Khemani - percussion
Tomas Fujiwara - drumset
Mike Bomwell - soprano sax
Alex Hamlin - baritone sax
Sonny Singh - trumpet / vocals
MiWi La Lupa - bass trumpet / vocals
Ernest Stuart - trombone
John Altieri - sousaphone / rap

The listing:

Red Baraat
In just over two short years, the pioneering Brooklyn dhol 'n' brass party juggernaut RED BARAAT have made a name for themselves as one of the best live bands playing anywhere in the world. Led by dhol drummer Sunny Jain, the nine piece (comprised of dhol ((double-sided barrel shaped North Indian drum slung over one shoulder)) drumset, percussion, a sousaphone, and 5 horns) melds the infectious North Indian rhythm Bhangra with a host of sounds, namely funk, go-go, latin, and jazz. Simply put, Sunny Jain and Red Baraat have created and defined a sound entirely their own.

It’s a sound so powerful it has left the band in its own utterly unique and enviable class. These days you are as likely to find Red Baraat throwing down at an overheated and unannounced warehouse party in their Brooklyn neighborhood as you are at Lincoln Center. Or the Montreal Jazz Festival. Or the Barbican. It’s a band unquestionably on the ascent playing some of the most prestigious festivals and theatres worldwide, and keeping their chops razor sharp in basements and sweaty sold out clubs across New York City. Leading an audience as diverse and joyful as the band itself, Red Baraat has subsumed a plateful of global influence, fused it, and is now exporting it Brooklyn-style to the world.

The group's most recent release, BOOTLEG BHANGRA, is the band’s incredibly powerful live show captured at Brooklyn’s Southpaw on the band’s second anniversary. With songs pulled primarily from their debut album, CHAAL BABY, the group was mindful of the challenge to capture a rapturous live sound on record. Well, it happened on this night, and the resulting document places you squarely in that small Brooklyn club jammed from front to back with hip shaking beauties - hands raised to a ceiling dripping with condensation. The band is currently at work on their 2nd studio date, SHRUGGY JI, which should see release in early 2012.

Most recently, the title track, Chaal Baby, is being used as the background music for the promo ads for the hit FX TV show, It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. After the group’s performance at the 2011 globalFEST, Red Baraat was a top pick favorite and featured on PRI’s The World, NPR’s All Songs Considered, New York Times, The Village Voice and Mother Jones magazine. The group's debut CD, CHAAL BABY (Sinj Records) was voted by several music critics as a top world and jazz release of 2010. Since their inception in October 2008, Red Baraat has delivered blistering performances at globalFEST, Montreal Jazz Festival, Sunfest, Festival De Louisiane, Quebec City Summer Festival, Chicago World Music Festival, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Madison World Music Festival, New Orleans Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival (Finland), Molde Jazz Festival (Norway) and Chicago Folks & Roots Festival, among many others. Red Baraat appeared on John Schaefer's Soundcheck WNYC-FM 93.9, an NPR affiliate, in which they were picked as a top live radio performance of 2009. They also recorded the credit roll theme song for the movie, The Yes Men Fix the World and performed for the 2009 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (NYC) for Ports 1961 runway models. Red Baraat has been featured in National Geographic, Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, Relix and Songlines, among many others.

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