I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 1, 2017] Red Baraat

Sarah sent me a link to “World Music Day” a free festival at a park just 15 minutes from our house.  I love multicultural events, so I was of course interested.  And then I discovered that the headlining band was Red Baraat, a band whose Tiny Desk Concert was amazing and who I wanted to see live, although who knew when that would happen.  Well, here they were at a free show right around the corner from me!

Tabby had a field hockey game earlier that day and we made it to the park with plenty of time to eat empanadas from the empanada truck and get a great seat right up front.

It took a few minutes for the band to get set up (and the sign they had taped to the wall fell on the poor drummer), but once the band got started, they sounded fantastic.

Red Baraat is “the pioneering 8-piece Brooklyn Bhangra, party juggernaut…. the drum and brass + guitar band delivers an unprecedented, high energy, gut-busting fusion of jazz, hip-hop beats, rock muscle, funky go-go, and scalding hot bhangra.”  And what’s that?  Well, bhaṅgṛā is a type of upbeat popular music associated with immigrant Punjabi youth. It was invented in England starting in the 1970s by people from the Punjab region of India and Pakistan.

And man is it fun and infectious.

The band is fronted by dhol drummer Sunny Jain–who is evidently legendary in his own right.  The dhol is that drum that he plays.  It has heads on both ends.  He plays the more synthetic head with a bamboo stick and the goatskin head with a flatter curved stick.  When I asked him about that stick he said it was just for more surface area.

As soon as the show began, Sonny encouraged us to get to our feet and dance. And we all did.  What was so much fun about this setting was that the front of the stage was full of little kids, who totally know how to get down.

But it did not take long for everyone to get down.  Sonny’s drum and b-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r’s are a big party starter.   And then add the super funky catchy dancey riffs on sax and trumpet and it’s impossible to stand still.  The band usually have a trombonist, but he wasn’t there for whatever reason.

They opened up with Shruggy Ji. getting everybody up and moving.

I had my choice of spaces in front of the stage to take pictures, but I didn’t want to be too obnoxious, so I hung pretty much where I was, right under trumpeter Sonny Singh.  He was a great second in command, singing back up and occasional lead (I assume in Punjabi?).

After two or three songs, they invited four dancers on stage for a dance off.  It was a lot of fun and all four contestants were delightful.  The lady on the right is a huge fan of the band and came all the way from Allentown to see them.

Jonathon Haffner on soprano sax seemed to play the majority of the riffs.  Sonny on trumpet seemed to play accent melodies and solos.  But it never felt like one person was carrying everyone else.  The band was a cohesive unit from the start.

And then, as if indicating that we just weren’t close enough to the stage, Sonny came down to the grass and called everybody forward.  He even let the little kids bang on the dhol–the one who had the stick had fantastic rhythm!  Soon enough everybody was on the grass and we were dancing with the whole band.

When they played “Chaal Baby” she screamed really loud and delighted the whole band.

During one of the songs, Sonny, as well as Chris Eddleton on drums and Rohin Khemani on percussion played a great drum/percussion solo that got the crowd moving.

Late in the set, John Altieri, who had been the most lively sousaphone player I’d ever seen, got to do a sousaphone solo.  I only managed to get the end of it.  But the whole thing (about 2 minutes?) was great.

Amid all of the brass there was guitarist Jonathan Goldberger.  Most of the time he seemed to be playing textures and interesting sounds that played around the main riffs.  But once in awhile he played a ripping solo.  Even though the songs were kind of funky and Punjabi, those solos sounded great.

The sounds that he got out of that big honking instrument were great.  Deep low bass notes and then really fast high notes.  I’ve no idea how he did it.  After the set he was hanging around by the merch table (signed our CD) and was really pleased with how much I liked his playing.

“Chaal Baby” did (as the dancer predicted) get everybody moving.  And then, when he announced “Azad Azad” and said it means freedom, we all sang along: “no borders no walls freedom dances through us all.”

I don’t know that many song names, and it’s hard to tell instrumental songs apart, but this is my guess for a set list.  I’m sure there were one or two or three more songs in there.  Although as Tabby (who liked them enough that she wanted to get the shirt up top) said, their songs are long with no words.

• Shruggy Ji
• Horizon Line
• Zindabad
• Chaal Baby
• Tunak Tunak Tun
• Azad Azad
• Punjabi Wedding Song (Balle Balle)