Jazz Articles
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Red Baraat: Chaal Baby
by Elliott Simon
Percussionist Sunny Jain has already impressed as a musician who weaves disparate musical worlds into new universes. Chaal Baby, from his Red Baraat band, produces incredibly infectious celebratory dance music using Punjabi bhangra rhythms, funk and Jain's skills on the dhol, a double-sided North Indian drum. The result is a brassy percussive party that doesn't stop rocking until the final cut is over. The brass band milieu has given rise to various ethnic/jazz combinations that lean heavily ...
read moreSunny Jain Collective: Avaaz
by Ernest Barteldes
Every time you feel a little jaded about jazz, out comes an album that is completely surprising. This was the case with Avaaz, by a collective led by percussionist Sunny Jain, who brings his Asian heritage into the jazz realm with incredibly welcome results. The opening track, “Sialkot (the title refers to a city in Punjab now part of Pakistan), begins with an Eastern feel. The words, sung by vocalist Samita Sinha, were taken from an Urdu ...
read moreSamita Sinha: Seep
by Budd Kopman
Seep is a record that begs to be listened to over and over so that the experience of being totally swept away can be repeated. Along with new releases by the Sunny Jain Collective, on which Sinha sings, and the Raw Materials duo of Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa, Seep adds another viewpoint to the developing Indo jazz scene. Of the three, the connection to Indian culture is strongest in this release, not the least because Sinha ...
read moreSunny Jain Collective: Avaaz
by Budd Kopman
The Sunny Jain Collective is part of a growing group of musicians whose roots are from South Asia (primarily India, but also countries like Cambodia and Thailand) and are naturally cross-fertilizing with other practitioners. Artists like Vijay Iyer and Rudresh Mahanthappa are developing a new kind of Indo-jazz fusion. The leaders of this movement are usually first-generation Americans with strong ties to the music of their parents' homeland. Rather than feeling trapped, cut off or shortchanged, and ...
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