Get ready to dance, folks. An internationally acclaimed band is returning to Providence for an outdoor show in July. Even better, the concert is free and open to fans of all ages.
Red Baraat arrives at the Roger Williams Park Bandstand as part of the FirstWorks Summer Beats Concerts series on Sunday, July 23 at 6PM. The band is known worldwide for high-energy live shows that incorporate pretty much every musical genre you can think of.
Indeed, their music is a melting pot – merging influences from around the world that will certainly make you get up out of your (lawn) chair. We recently spoke with Red Baraat founder Sunny Jain to learn more. How does Jain describe the band’s sound I wondered?
“Red Baraat comes from the Indian brass band tradition, but it’s not just trying to replicate that sound,” said Jain. “It’s more like a South Asian-American experience with a fusion of jazz, hip-hop, and rock with a massive amount of energy. The central instrumentation is brass and the dhol drum, the traditional drum I play.”
Our region is known for some noisy fun street bands like the What Cheer Brigade and the Providence Drum Troupe. Red Baraat is a bit different. “The main thing that makes us different is the Panjabi dhol drum, which you don’t really find in street bands or brass bands over here. Also, although we have the ability to be mobile, we’re very much a stage band, because we have the stationary drum set driving the bus and kicking down those beats,” he added.
The appeal of a band like Red Baraat is that there is something for everyone.
“People find similarities, something in the music that they can relate to for multiple reasons,” explains Jain. “I feel like jazz fans hear the jazz solos that are happening; they relate to it because of the brass and the relationship to New Orleans. In fact, the first time we played New Orleans about 12 years ago, we got adopted immediately – we’re like second cousins to the New Orleans marching bands.”
The Punjabi beat, there’s a lot of symbiosis with the New Orleans feel, the march beat, and also the Bayou beat,” continued Jain. “Over the course of 15 years we’ve been playing, there are some folks that aren’t familiar with the Indian brass band tradition at all, but whatever perspective they’re coming from in terms of their musical background, there’s something they’re able to latch onto. I think that points to the universality of drums and rhythm but also just music.”
Jain was introduced to South Asian music growing up in New York.
“My parents were immigrants – I was born and raised in Rochester, N.Y. where I had a healthy dose of a little bit of everything – Bollywood classics from the 50s through the 80s, devotional songs of Jainism through both my parents, and then some Hindustani classical. I was getting all the Western music, like Casey Kasem’s Top 40, from my two older siblings.”
The band has played around the world, at popular music festivals and the Olympics, from the White House to RI’s own PVD Fest in 2016. Their appeal is widespread. “We don’t have just one strong demographic. There’s always South Asians in the crowd, there’s always jazz fans in the crowd, and because we’re known as a party band, people who like to dance come to our shows. When we go to DC and play, people hear the go-go influence, which is definitely in some of the tunes.”
Red Baraat was created to bring joy and unity to all people. “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 much sweeter,” said Jain.
Be sure to add this show to your summer calendar. A good time is pretty much guaranteed!
For more details about the concert, click here.
To learn more about the band, click here.
