America's only South Asian wedding band Red Baraat fires on all cylinders with its blistering new studio album, Bhangra Rangeela (Sinj Records) -- the band's first release since 2018 -- as dhol drummer Sunny Jain and his cast of NYC's finest multi-instrumentalists bring bombastic beats and fiery horns to dance floors in North American venues this spring 2025. Set for release on April 25, 2025, Bhangra Rangeela (STREAM) features Red Baraat alongside special guests, including drummer Stewart Copeland of The Police, guitarist Delicate Steve, producer Karsh Kale, among others. 15 years into an acclaimed career since their debut album, Chaal Baby (2010), Red Baraat carries on their tradition as a raucous dance party band and unifier of cultures, both on and off the stage.
Red Baraat comes out swinging with its opener "Bhangra Rangeela"; first conceptualized during an epic 20-minute mashup of "Hava Nagila" at their close friends' Muslim-Jewish wedding. Verses by the Pakistani rapper SMK and Sufi singers Bakshi Brothers interweave with the sounds of the dhol beats and horns. Stewart Copeland contributes massive drums and a remix of the original song "Gaadi of Truth" from Bhangra Pirates (2017). Delicate Steve joins a banger remix from Nick Catchdubs for the perfect music drop at a DJ dance party in Brooklyn with "Bhangale." Tabla player/producer Karsh Kale brings a sonic respite on his remix of "Layers" (Bhangra Pirates) with a feel of the waves of the Arabian Sea crashing upon the shores of a Goan beach. An EP of three remixes will follow the street date of April 25th featuring Pakistani rapper Adil Omar contributing a fierce remix of "Bhangra Rangeela," Kahani's (Indo Warehouse) take on "Thums Up," as well as a remix by DJ Rekha. Select classic Red Baraat songs from their acclaimed recording catalog also appear on Bhangra Rangeela.
The Life & Career Of Sunny Jain -- A Quest For Identity & Community
Searching for one's identity takes many forms, and doing so in America's largest metropolitan area, New York City, can be disillusioning for a son of immigrants. Sunny Jain, who leads Red Baraat, is an anomaly in the NYC arts scene, which he carries from his earlier days in Rochester, NY, and music studies at Rutgers University and NYU. A South Asian jazz drummer for nearly a decade in NYC before launching Red Baraat, Jain saw himself taking an idiosyncratic approach to bridge his upbringing of listening to Jain Bhajans (devotional songs), Bollywood soundtracks, and Bhangra, by plunging into the sounds of Philly Joe Jones, Clifford Brown, and Trilok Gurtu. He rarely encountered other brown-skinned creatives across his formative years, and it wasn't until much later when he met Vijay Iyer, Rudresh Mahanthappa, DJ Rekha, and Karsh Kale, that he felt a sense of kinship in New York City.
Jain's infinite desire to build a community around his music led him to form Red Baraat and ultimately changed the musical path he was on. For 15 years, Red Baraat has obliterated over 700 stages at Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, New Orleans Jazz Fest, WOMAD, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Bowery Ballroom, Lincoln Center's 60th Anniversary Celebration, their annual Festival of Colors celebrating the Hindu holiday of Holi (LINK), as well as a performance at the request of The White House (Obama), TED, London Olympic Games, and Padma Lakshmi's Blossom Ball. Red Baraat is beloved for igniting live crowds into ecstatic frenzies with their power-packed sets fusing the South Asian diaspora with go-go, jazz, and rock. Stereogum touted their 2018 release, Sound The People, by stating, "The album is full of moments that hit with the force of a spiritual awakening...The funk, and ska-punk...are layered intricately within the same thread work as the ragas...Each piece is a gesture of cultural harmony, rendering not only genre irrelevant, but the geographic placement of those sounds."
Bhangra Rangeela unites cultures in polarizing times as we yearn for community, belonging, and love. Sunny Jain says, "We must uphold our values above the divisions caused by religions, nationalism, and politics. There is no absolute truth, as sometimes perpetuated by religious or political dogma, but rather relative truths, or different perspectives. Basic human rights are under attack just for looking different or because of misconceptions of beliefs. We need to get out of our social media silos and be open and engaging in real life. We can come to understand others and elevate humanity."
Multi-Disciplinary Arts Activations On Sunny Jain's Journey To Share His Family's Legacy
Building community around profound art that fosters authentic senses of belonging is what invigorates Jain to pursue diverse mediums where he can share his life story while forever searching for a deeper sense of identity. Whereas Red Baraat summons the Indian big bands of the 18th century with a modern immigrant sound, Jain explores in an array of productions the consequences his family of origin suffered due to the Indian Independence Act of 1947 and its bloody legacy splitting India and Pakistan. In Jain's theater production, he blurs the lines between performers and the audience with an autobiographical portrayal questioning hierarchical systems, religion, and traditions, while reflecting on the multiple identities so many immigrant families confront in the process of staying connected to the past and imagining new futures.
As a musical director, Jain was enlisted by Stephen Daldry (Director, The Crown) and Justin Martin for the production of The Jungle at St. Ann's Warehouse (Brooklyn, NY) where he developed percussive soundscapes accompanying the stage setup of a refugee camp from Calais, France. He also worked with director Mira Nair for the Broadway adaptation of her acclaimed film, Monsoon Wedding, where he assembled a baraat band for the wedding procession. He was later the Music Producer for its showing at St. Ann's Warehouse. Jain has released a cookbook, Phoenix Rise (LINK, 2021), featuring 72 pages with 22 plant-based recipes with 10 songs featuring Jain, Arooj Aftab, Ganavya, Vijay Iyer, Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas) and Joe Russo, with all proceeds going to support the CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.
Jain's solo album, Wild Wild East (Smithsonian Folkways, 2020), was born in 2015 while at Global Village in Dubai (LINK), where he saw a huge statue of a white male cowboy with a gun in his holster as the only representation of the Americas in the display of 90 cultures. When the 2016 election happened, the pandemonium in Washington DC and NYC on the East Coast led to Jain finally composing Wild Wild East. The migration story of his family while poking fun at the American cowboy myth became emulated by the sounds of Indian westerns of the 1970s, psychedelic guitars, and South Asian folk music. Wild Wild East is steeped in thoughtful interrogation of American myths to question and rhapsodize simultaneously with the past, present, and future (NPR "TINY DESK CONCERT," 2024).
In 2025, Jain's ambitious theater work continues with a commission at the Soho Repertory Theatre where he'll again address the concepts of migration and his family history.
To access Track-By-Track Descriptions for Bhangra Rangeela, please click HERE.
Red Baraat
Bhangra Rangeela
Track List:
1. Bhangra Rangeela
2. Thums Up
3. Crown of Spades
4. Gaadi of Truth (ft. Stewart Copeland)
5. Chaal Baby
6. Bhangale (ft. Delicate Steve)
7. Layers
8. Chaal Baby - Omgcornelio, Johnaton Wright, Adreal Remix
9. Bhangale (ft. Delicate Steve) - Nick Catchdubs Remix
10. Layers - Karsh Kale Remix
