• By Mabel Pais

“This year’s ‘discovery’ [WOMAD UK Festival], though, was Red Baraat, a cacophonous bhangra funk band from Brooklyn. Think Punjabi weddings, Delhi street brass bands, modern jazz and rock.” – The Telegraph (UK)

The World Music Institute (WMI) with Brooklyn Bowl, as part of WMI’s ‘LET’S DANCE’ Series, presents ‘Red Baraat – Festival of Colors’, a pioneering Indian bhangra band merging hard driving North Indian bhangra with elements of hip-hop, jazz and raw punk energy. The band will present its performance at the Brooklyn Bowl (61 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211) on March 9, 2024 at 8 PM. This is a standing show with very limited seating. Doors open at 6 PM.

Red Baraat (redbaraat.com), conceived by dhol player Sunny Jain is known for its signature blend of genres including elements of hip-hop, jazz, hard-driving north Indian bhangra and punk energy. The band’s mission is one of manifesting joy and unity in all people. Red Baraat’s annual ‘Festival of Colors’ sold out quickly when WMI presented it last year – This year too, the band will present this uniquely New York celebration of the Hindu holiday of Holi with its colorful array of South Asian sounds.

Traditionally, Holi is marked by public gatherings of families and strangers sharing songs, dance, and the exchange of ‘colors’ – colorful dry powder or colored water playfully thrown amongst the crowds of revelers. It signifies the victory of good over evil, the arrival of spring, and for many, a festive day to meet others, play and laugh, forget and forgive, and repair ruptured relationships.

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.

Listen to/watch their performance – youtu.be/k4PXlNoUmAk

2018 also saw the band touring Kazakhstan, United Arab Emirates, 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. The release of Red Baraat’s 2nd album in 2013, Shruggy Ji, debuted at #1 on the Billboard World Music charts in the USA and propelled the band on a world tour that has yet to stop. They’ve performed at Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, globalFEST, Lincoln Center, New Orleans Jazz Fest, and Colours of Ostrava, just to name a few. 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.

The band’s 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, Stereogum: “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

Reemerging in 2021 with a renewed focus, energy and sound, Red Baraat headlined the Wolf Trap Performing Arts Center with master percussionist, Zakir Hussain, performed at the Dubai World Expo, and toured its 11th annual Red Baraat Festival of Colors.

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.”

“Their infectious rhythms roll over the audience like a hurricane and let the audience breathe only in a short ballad pause.” – — RHEIN MAIN PRESS (GERMANY)

Samir LanGus (samirlangus.com) is a Grammy Award-nominated gnawa musician, born and raised in the city of Ait Melloule, Morocco whose passion for music stems from the variety of street sounds of his home city. Gnawa music is a body of Moroccan religious songs and rhythms. Its well-preserved heritage combines ritual poetry with traditional music and dancing. It is deeply hypnotic trance music marked by low-toned, rhythmic melodies played on a skin-covered lute called a sintir or guembri. The method involves call-and-response singing, hand-clapping, and cymbals.

Currently based in NYC, LanGus adds his own contemporary spin to the traditional spiritual trance music, mixing jazz instrumentation and North African tradition with New York attitude. 

PROGRAM

6 PM – Doors and DJ / 8 PM – Samir LanGus / 9:30 PM – Red Baraat

Standing show with very limited seating

TICKETS

For tickets, visit worldmusicinstitute.org/red-baraat-festival-of-colors-2024

LET’S DANCE SERIES

The LET’S DANCE series brings us all together on the dance floor moving our bodies to the infectious beats of DJs and live bands from around the world. 

(Mabel Pais writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Spirituality, Education, Cuisine, Health & Wellness, and Business)