New York City’s own jazz, bhangra and world fusion outfit Red Baraat held their second CO-LAB event at Brooklyn Bowl on Monday May 16th, 2016 with guests Mariachi Flor de Toloache (who have been touring with Dan Auerbach’s new band The Arcs) and friends like Delicate Steve joining them for wild night of musical fusion and sweaty dancing.
When I had interviewed Red Baraat’s bandleader Sunny Jain a few years back for PopMatters, I remember I asked him if the group would ever do something like The Roots Picnic event where Red Baraat would be the backing band for other artists. This CO-LAB as it was called wasn’t quite like that, it was a proper collaboration as the guests jammed out on Red Baraat’s anthems (“Shruggy Ji” was rhymed with “chubby ji”). If you missed their two Brooklyn Bowl sets, Red Baraat will be performing a free show at Celebrate Brooklyn on July 7th in Prospect Park. The mela (festival) will feature other artists of South Asian descent including Karsh Kale, DJ Rekha, Heems, Bhi Bhiman and more.
I had seen Mariachi Flor de Toloache play with The Arcs at Housing Works Bookstore Cafe last year and, during the event, heard and recognized the name of Shae Fiol, a member of the group. I didn’t connect it till later though when I found out Fiol had opened for Esthero, the one time I saw Esthero at the Hiro Ballroom, in 2007.
EDIT: Gallery removed after site re-vamp. Check out the full gallery from Red Baraat’s May 16 CO-LAB at this link.
