Wedding brass bands are a big part of Indian weddings. These bands grew out of the military brass bands in British India as ethnomusicologist Prof. Greg Booth explains.

Imagine my surprise when a few years ago I stumbled upon Red Baarat, a brass band from New York. This 8-piece band was started by Sunny Jain in 2008. Jain plays the droll (percussion). The band incorporates a patchwork quilt of sounds from bhangra to jazz to funk.

Red Baarat has released a couple of albums. Recently, they released their new one called “Gaadi of Truth” (roughly translated to mean a “Vehicle of Truth”).  Jain plays the dhol (percussion drum).

You can catch Red Baarat in San Francisco bay area in March. On March 21, 2015 they are playing at San Francisco Jazz Center and on March 22, 2015 they will play at Moe’s Alley in Santa Cruz.

And here is a video of Red Baarat playing at NPR”s Tiny Desk Concert.

 

Photo credit: Red Baarat