Here’s a fun clip from a live performance we did on WGN TV in Chicago:

And a clip of “Baraat to Nowhere” from our performance at the amazing Kentucky Center in Louisville:

A review of our show at Lawrence University in Appleton, WI stated:

The end result of the ensemble in concert was something like a small explosion, leaving no one unaffected. Their sound blasts across cultural borders, creating simultaneously inclusive and anarchic music which calls to all human beings to get up, and get down. Red Baraat reminds us that music doesn’t have to be simple or tepid to appeal to a wide variety of people. Their big, bold, brassy and complex sound powerfully and triumphantly sweeps you off your feet.

I’m back home in Brooklyn now, but not for long.  Our Spring tour continues in a couple of weeks at the LEAF Festival in North Carolina and Lilac Festival in Rochester, and then we head to Europe for a two week bhangra adventure.  Oh, and we’ll be playing at Bonnaroo on June 9th!  What?!

Red Baraat at the Mint in Los Angeles, Photo by Jim Brock

I just returned from an eventful 10 or so days on the road with Red Baraat in California and Miami.  We started with our dhol-shattering (literally) debut show in the Bay at Slim’s in San Francisco and a fun little lunchtime jam at the Google campus (see video), where we were fed very well and rode tiny brightly colored bikes around the parking lot (and brought smiles to the faces of many desi engineers).  Then we made our way to Santa Cruz and LA with great energy and turnout all around and a sold out show at the Mint in LA (check out this review).  Many burritos were eaten, as were tandoori brussel sprouts (for real) at this amazing spot in Santa Cruz courtesy of my friend Rupa.

We also did a couple of special performances at the TED conference in Long Beach, getting the likes of Al Gore, Cameron Diaz, Van Jones, and Matt Groening (to name a few) shrugging their shoulders to the dhol n’ brass. I also had the pleasure of having my eyebrows brushed for the first time ever during my makeup session before our main stage performance.  Will keep you updated if any video footage from TED gets posted.  I think you’ll be pleased with the eyebrow stylings.

To round it out, we soaked up the heat in Miami with two sets at the annual Carnaval on the Mile festival this weekend, which also featured one of my favorite bands Ozomatli who are good friends and comrades.  We had a great time sitting in with them too, which you can see some clips of here and here.

I’m back home for a few weeks and getting ready for Red Baraat’s first annual Festival of Colors this coming Saturday 3/10 at Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan.  It’s an early show (starts at 7 sharp), and should be a great time in celebration of Spring festival Holi.  Come through and spread the word!  All the details below:

RED BARAAT’s FESTIVAL OF COLORS
with DJ Rekha and Jehan’s Bellydance Raks*Stars
Saturday, March 10th
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, NYC
http://lepoissonrouge.com/events/artist/4401

$15 Advance / $22 Day of Show
Tix: https://secure.gigmaven.com/events/7662/orders/new

7-8pm DJ Rekha (Basement Bhangra+Bollywood Disco)
8-8:30pm Jehan’s Bellydance Raks*Stars
8:30-10pm Red Baraat
(note: this will be punctual, as our show has to be over by 10pm)

RSVP and spread the word on FB: https://www.facebook.com/events/363278167035387/

I’ll be on the road a bunch this Spring with Red Baraat, starting next week with California. We’ll be playing in the Bay area for the first time on Thursday, 2/23 at Slim’s in San Francisco, then on 2/24 in Santa Cruz, and 2/25 in Los Angeles. On March 2-3rd we’ll be at the Carnival on the Mile Festival in Miami, and then return for a big Holi festival in NYC at Le Poisson Rouge.  In April, we’ll be all over the Midwest and the South. Check out all the details on the shows page, and hope to see you soon!

Making music and making change go hand in hand for many of us, and I’m eager for another year of creating joyful sounds with Red Baraat and many other friends and collaborators. I have a bunch of shows coming up in January– check out the schedule here.

I’ve also done a lot of writing this past year for The Langar Hall blog where I am a regular contributor as well as a number of other outlets including the Asian American Literary Review, the Huffington Post, Left Turn, The Big Ceci, Sikh Chic, and In Front and Center: Critical Voices in the 99%, a blog I co-founded.  Here are a few of my favorites from this year:

Working for Langar Justice
The Langar Hall, 1/14/11 and at The Big Ceci

The Divisive Taboo of Halal for Sikhs
The Langar Hall, 2/22/11 and at SikhChic.com

The Death of Bin Laden & the Soul of the USA
The Langar Hall, 5/13/11

Khuli Dhari: My Journey to Beard Liberation
The Langar Hall, 8/2/11 and at SikhNet.

Healing the trauma of post-9/11 racism one story (and melody) at a time
Asian American Literary Review, 9/11/11 (order journal here) and posted online at Left Turn

Wall Street Sikhs, Corporate Tyranny, and the 99%
The Langar Hall, 10/4/11

We Are One: LGBT Rights and Guru Nanak’s Legacy of Inclusion
Huffington Post, 11/10/11

A complete list of links to my writing can be found here.  Thanks to everyone who reads these words, posts links, and engages in the conversation.  Your feedback and support is much of what keeps me writing down all the thoughts and feelings swirling around in my head and heart.

And finally, here are a couple of new videos to share with you all — one performing with hip hop artist Mandeep Sethi at Lahir: Move the Movement a few weeks back; the other performing with Arooj Aftab in this trailer for the Rebuild Pakistan series that I’m honored to be a part of.   Happy New Year, and see you soon!

I’m hopeful that sharing my story in this way will be helpful for educators, parents and young people themselves.  You can watch the film below, and please spread the word if you like it.

Here are a few pieces I have written in the last few days about my thoughts about Occupy Wall Street.  I hope to see you on the front lines, with an instrument, a poem, your voice, and definitely, your heart.

Beyond Barricades and Privilege: Reflections from the #OccupyWallStreet Community/Labor March

Wall Street Sikhs, Corporate Tyranny, and the 99%

Check out the below clip from Democracy Now’s coverage of yesterday’s massive march in NYC with interviews with protesters and a little dhol playing by me…

Festival d'été de Québec, Credit: Renaud Philippe

It’s been a busy summer on the road with Red Baraat!  We just returned from several dates in Canada and our debut in London, England at the Barbican and the Shoreditch Festival.  We’re gearing up for an exciting end of the month in the Catskills and Toronto this weekend, then out west to Los Angeles for our debut west coast show at the Skirball Center. We’ll round out July with a homecoming show at one of my favorite things about summers in NYC — the Celebrate Brooklyn concert series in Prospect Park. Playing alongside go-go master Chuck Brown as well as Dr. John, it’s gonna be a memorable one!  Check out all the details on the shows page.

Red Baraat also just released a live album entitled BOOTLEG BHANGRA, which you can check out and download here.  It’s the next best thing to coming to a show…

In addition to Red Baraat, I recently spent a magical week in a homemade recording studio and gallery in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with the amazingly talented and powerful Sufi-inspired singer, Arooj Aftab and a host of other fantastic musicians and dancers working on her forthcoming debut album and a few videos.  You can check out more about this project here, and I will keep you posted on the album’s release!

Hope to see you soon!

Coming home from tour is always bittersweet. While I am glad to be back home with my cat Chotu and very much looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tonight, it feels disorienting to not be about to hit the stage again (at least not for a few days!). All of this to say…

10 days, 3 cities, and 11 shows made for one amazing and memorable Red Baraat Southern tour!

My recap:

Lafayette, LA:

We played 3 shows for thousands of people at the Festival International de Louisiane, a wonderful, community-oriented annual music fest in western Louisiana. We were received so warmly by everyone and are grateful for all the hospitality and good vibes.

Weird/amazing thing that happened: During the first song of our Saturday night show at the festival, a gorgeous, colorful little bird landed on the stage right behind me while MiWi, our bass trumpet player, was playing a solo. It just sat there and listened.  It was totally surreal – this little creature calmly sitting completely still on this brightly lit stage with massive decibels of of rhythmic sound bouncing around – seemingly entranced by Red Baraat’s music and the audience of a few thousand dancing souls. I don’t know what to make of it, but it was kind of mind-blowing. And beautiful. Our bird friend flew away after two or three minutes of attentive listening and observing…

Later that set, renowned New Orleans brass band the Soul Rebels sat in with us, which was a lot of fun. Check out a video clip of it here.  And some Tunuk Tunuk Tan below… 

New Orleans, LA:

We were blessed to spend 5 days in New Orleans, our first time there as a band.  Throughout the entire week, we felt quite at home, musically and otherwise. Our time in NOLA started with a bang with a performance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. It was such an honor to have the opportunity to play at JazzFest alongside some of the greatest musicians in the world. We were not on one of the massive stages, but hundreds of people still managed to hear us (even though we were competing with John Legend and The Roots, as well as the one and only….Kenny G).

We also did a live performance on NOLA’s community radio station WWOZ on Tuesday. After playing a couple of tunes, the host of the radio show called us the highlight of his JazzFest week! So grateful for all the NOLA love.

We also played a show at the House of Blues in New Orleans for a great hyped crowd and then rounded out the week with a meeting of second line and baraat on Thursday night on Frenchman Street. Inspired by brass bands of New Orleans, Red Baraat took to the streets marching band style.  A spontaneous bhangra party of a few hundred people quickly erupted. New Orleans trombone player Glenn David Andrews happened to be hanging out on a balcony across the street and started responding to our songs with some trombone riffs. Soon enough he joined us on the street for an impromptu jam session and we second line-baraat-ed it back to the French Quarter with dozens of people dancing and marching with us. It was the perfect end to our time in New Orleans.

Houston, TX:

Our southern stint ended with four shows at the Houston International Festival this past weekend. One thing is for sure: Houston is hot! We had a great (and sweaty) time playing for such diverse, multigenerational audiences. The Red Baraat horn section also sat in for a song with the amazing, powerful Michael Franti & Spearhead on Saturday night, which was a blast. It was great connecting with a lot of good folks, old friends and new, and, of course, eating tacos for breakfast.

Much appreciation to everyone who welcomed us so warmly into their festivals, cities, and communities. Southern hospitality is for real! It was a fabulous 10 days, and I’m looking forward to coming back soon.

p.s.  a few culinary highlights, if you care.  in no particular order:  1. late night beignets at cafe dumonde in nola, 2. the biggest plate of bread pudding ever at mother’s in nola, 3. the pineapple cilantro popsicle at meltdown in nola, 4. tator tachos (yes, Tachos!) at 13 in nola, and 5. the breakfast tacos at tacos a gogo in houston.

globalFEST 2011, photo by Willis Glasspiegel

It’s been an eventful first few months of 2011 around the world!  From the Middle East to the Midwest, there is a lot to feel hopeful about, and also a lot to feel overwhelmed by.  I’ve been doing a lot of writing on politics, Sikhism, and social justice, which you can check out here.

On the music front, I started the year with a bang playing globalFEST with Red Baraat at Webster Hall, which was a blast.  The show was reviewed by dozens of media outlets including NPR, the New York Times, the Village Voice, Time Out NY, and more.  You can listen to our entire performance on NPR’s website here.

Jon Pareles wrote in the Times:  “The last set belonged to Red Baraat, a Brooklyn brass band (complete with sousaphone) that looks to South Asia, pumping out Bollywood tunes and Sufi songs with a crackling beat (from the two-headed dhol drum) and the muscle of horns blasting in unison, putting some New York bluster atop faraway roots.”

I’ve also been excited about a few new collaborations this year, including playing  trumpet and dhol with the amazing/crazy artist Sxip Shirey and a recording session with hip hop artist Alex Reyes.  I’m also looking forward to playing with the beautiful Sufi-inspired singer Arooj Aftab coming up in Brooklyn, and Red Baraat shows at the Kennedy Center in DC (sold out!), the New Orleans Jazz Festival, and the Houston International Festival.

As I focus more of my life on music, I am eager to continue building new musical relationships and collaborations, so get in touch if you want to build or know anyone looking for a trumpet player and/or dhol player.

Thanks for the continued support!

2010 was a big year for Red Baraat, beginning with the release of our debut album Chaal Baby in January and summer and fall tours in the Midwest, Montreal, and Scandanavia, and of course our Triborough tours of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.  I’ve never felt as much joy playing music as I do with Red Baraat, and a huge part of that is the explosive, positive energy that we receive from the audience — You!  Thank you for all the love!

Other highlights included playing trumpet and dhol in Judith Sloan‘s powerful one-woman show “Yo Miss! Teaching Across the Cultural Divide”; playing trumpet with Muslim punk rockers The Kominas, NYC’s fierce trio Mahina Movement, and Seattle-based hip hop artist Gabriel Teodros; rocking the dhol with amazing artists like Ozomatli, DJ Rekha, and DJ Oja; and getting the shoulders shrugging at a whole lot baraats!

Much to look forward to this coming year, including:  Red Baraat recording our second album, “Shruggy Ji”; Red Baraat performances at GlobalFest at Webster Hall in NYC in January, at my alma mater UMass-Amherst in April, and at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in May; and a track in collaboration with Gabriel Teodros coming out on his new album early in 2011.

In addition to music, I’ll also be continuing to teach in NYC schools with the humane education organization HEART, facilitating ad-hoc social justice related workshops, working with Left Turn magazine, and writing regularly for The Langar Hall. Stay in touch on all fronts, and thanks again for all the support!

Pori, Finland, with Red Baraat; photo by Markku Aberg