Sunny Jain (born 1975) is an

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

dhol Dhol () can refer to any one of a number of similar types of double-headed drum widely used, with regional variations, throughout the Indian subcontinent. Its range of distribution in Indian subcontinent primarily includes northern areas such ...

player, drummer, and Indo jazz composer. He is recognized as a leading voice in the burgeoning movement of South Asian-American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

musicians. His albums have received international acclaim for their "groundbreaking synthesis" (''Coda Magazine''), as he brings together the ancient sounds of his cultural heritage, jazz and a host of other sounds.

Career

Jain has performed/recorded with Kiran Ahluwalia, Asphalt Orchestra,

Joey Baron Bernard Joseph Baron (born June 26, 1955 in Richmond, Virginia) is an American drummer best-known for working in avant-garde jazz with Bill Frisell and John Zorn. Music career Baron, who is of Jewish heritage, was born on June 26, 1955, in Ric ...

Kenny Barron Kenneth Barron (born June 9, 1943) is an American jazz pianist and composer who has appeared on hundreds of recordings as leader and sideman and is considered one of the most influential mainstream jazz pianists since the bebop era. Early life ...

, Marc Cary, Samir Chatterjee, DJ Rekha, Kyle Eastwood,

Peter Gabriel Peter Brian Gabriel (born 13 February 1950) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and human rights activist. He came to prominence as the original frontman of the rock band Genesis. He left the band in 1975 and launched a solo career wit ...

, Grupo Fantasma,

Norah Jones Norah Jones ( ; born Geethali Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has won several awards for her music and, , has sold more than 53 million records worldwide. '' Billboard'' named her the top jazz artist of ...

, Junoon, Andres Levin, Rudresh Mahanthappa, MarchFourth Marching Band, Q-Tip, Soul Rebels,

Martha Wainwright Martha Wainwright (born May 8, 1976) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and musician. She has released seven critically-acclaimed studio albums. Wainwright is the daughter of musicians Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and the younger si ...

, Kenny Wollesen, and

Himanshu Suri Himanshu Kumar Suri (born July 6, 1985), better known by his stage name Heems, is an American rapping, rapper. Suri came to prominence as a member of the alternative hip hop group Das Racist, with whom he released two mixtapes and one album. Sur ...

. Jain has been a recipient of composition and performance grants from the Aaron Copland Music Fund, Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and globalFEST, and received the Arts International Award in both 2003 and 2005 to enable touring India with his jazz group, Sunny Jain Collective. In 2002, Jain was designated a jazz ambassador by the U.S. Department of State and

the Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...

, for which he toured West Africa. Jain is the author of two instructional drum books for Alfred Publishing: ''The Total Jazz Drummer'' and ''Drum Atlas: India''. In 2007 Jain became the first artist endorser for India's largest and oldest musical manufacturer, Bina Music.

Red Baraat

In 2008, Jain founded the Brooklyn bhangra band Red Baraat. In 2011 Red Baraat performed over 100 club shows and festivals across the world, including

Bonnaroo Music Festival Bonnaroo (or Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival) is an American annual four-day music festival developed and founded by Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment. Bonnaroo has taken place at what is now Great Stage Park, a 700-acre (280 ha) fa ...

, High Sierra Music Festival, and a performance at the

White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...

and the

Paralympics The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

closing ceremony in London. The band consists of

, drums, percussion,

sousaphone The sousaphone ( ) is a brass musical instrument in the tuba family. Created around 1893 by J.W. Pepper & Son, J. W. Pepper at the direction of American bandleader John Philip Sousa (after whom the instrument was then named), it was design ...

, and horns, melding North Indian rhythm of bhangra with

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

, go-go, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and jazz. The group's debut album, ''Chaal Baby'', was voted a top world-music album of 2010 by ''The Boston Globe''. The group's 2011 follow-up album, ''Bootleg Bhangra'', was recorded at Brooklyn's Southpaw concert on the band's second anniversary. Red Baraat has performed at globalFEST, Montreal Jazz Festival, Sunfest, Festival De Louisiane, Quebec City Summer Festival, Chicago World Music Festival, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Madison World Music Festival, New Orleans Jazz Festival,

SXSW South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

Music Festival, Pori Jazz Festival (Finland), Molde Jazz Festival (Norway) and Chicago Folks & Roots Festival. Red Baraat appeared on John Schaefer's Soundcheck WNYC-FM 93.9, an NPR affiliate, in which they were picked as a top live radio performance of 2009. They also recorded the credit roll theme song for the movie '' The Yes Men Fix the World'' and performed for the 2009 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week (NYC) for Ports 1961 runway models. The group has been featured in ''

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', ''Relix'', ''

PopMatters ''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...

'', and Songlines. The band has performed two

Tiny Desk Concerts ''Tiny Desk Concerts'' is a video series of live concerts hosted by NPR Music at the desk of former ''All Songs Considered'' host Bob Boilen in Washington, D.C. The first ''Tiny Desk Concert'' came about in 2008 after Boilen and NPR Music edit ...

, one in 2012 and one in 2017.

Junoon

Jain is also the drummer and dhol player for Junoon, the biggest

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

band to emerge from South Asia. In 2011, they recorded the single "Open Your Eyes" featuring

to raise awareness and funds for Pakistani flood victims. In 2010, Junoon delivered a Concert for Pakistan at the United Nations in NYC, for displaced refugees in the Swat Valley. The band closed out 2007 with a milestone performance at the Nobel Peace Prize concert in Oslo, Norway, playing for Nobel Laureates

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

and Rajendra Paucharia. Jain played dhol/percussion in the first Indian Broadway show, '' Bombay Dreams'' (2004), and made his Hollywood debut playing dhol in the movie '' The Accidental Husband'', starring

Uma Thurman Uma Karuna Thurman (born April 29, 1970) is an American actress. She has performed in a variety of films, from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action films. Following her appearances on the December 1985 and May 1986 cover ...

Colin Firth Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor and producer. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Colin Firth, several accolades, including an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA Aw ...

, and

Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (; born 18 June 1952) is an Italian actress and model. The daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted for her successful tenure as a Lancôme ...

Wild Wild East

Jain is the band leader and drummer for the group Wild Wild East. Their first album was released in 2020 by

Smithsonian Folkways Smithsonian Folkways is the nonprofit record label of the Smithsonian Institution. It is a part of the Smithsonian's Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, located at Capital Gallery in downtown Washington, D.C. The label was f ...

. The group performed a Tiny Desk Concert for NPR in 2024.

Discography

As leader

* ''As Is'' (NCM East, 2002) * ''Mango Festival'' (Zoho 2004) * ''Avaaz'' (SinJ, 2006) * ''Taboo'' ( Brooklyn Jazz Underground, 2010) * ''Asphalt Orchestra'' with Asphalt Orchestra (Cantaloupe Music, 2010) ;with Red Baraat * ''Chaal Baby'' (SinJ, 2010) * ''Bootleg Bhangra'' (SinJ, 2012) * ''Shruggy Ji'' (SinJ, 2013) * ''Bhangra Pirates'' (Rhyme & Reason , 2017) * ''Sound The People'' (Rhyme & Reason , 2018) ;with Wild Wild East * ''Wild Wild East'' (

, 2020)

As sideman

* Grupo Fantasma, ''American Music Vol. VII'' (Blue Corn Music, 2019) * J. C. Hopkins, ''Underneath a Brooklyn Moon'' (Tigerlily, 2005) * Michael Leonhart, ''Seahorse and the Storyteller'' (Truth & Soul, 2010)

Written works

*''Drum Atlas: India'' (Alfred Publishing) *''The Total Jazz Drummer'' (Alfred Publishing)

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jain, Sunny American jazz drummers 1975 births Musicians from Rochester, New York Living people Junoon (band) members 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Jazz musicians from New York (state) 21st-century American drummers American male jazz musicians American musicians of Indian descent 20th-century Indian Jains 21st-century Indian Jains American Jains Brooklyn Jazz Underground members Drummers from New York (state)