The Bollywood Brass Band was surprised to find it had become an Indian wedding brass band, writes Mark Allen.
It all started so innocently ? the world music street band Crocodile Style was asked to join a Diwali procession and learnt some tunes from the Shyam Brass Band from Jabalpur, which was in the UK for a festival of street music. In came Johnny Kalsi an expert on the dhol, a traditional North Indian instrument made from a wooden shell, and members of his Dhol Foundation, and the Bollywood Brass Band (BBB) was off. Weddings and other community events soon rolled in. Its style has evolved into a London masala of film melodies and Bhangra beats, with jazz and world music flavours.
Strictly a street band in the early years, the BBB now performs on stage as well, combining the dynamism of the street (aided by bug mikes on most of the instruments) with tabla, dholak, flutes and other sounds. This is complemented by dance, both as video projections and live collaborations with both Bhangra and Bollywood style dancers, with DJs and VJs also coming into the mix. The past five years have taken the band to festivals and venues all over Europe, Australia and Canada, often with support from the British Council. Bollywood fever has swept the UK over the past couple of years, and is now taking off elsewhere ? the band is playing Valentine?s Day in St Mark?s Square as part of Venice Carnival, a Bollywood festival in Malaga in February, and the Strictly Mundial showcase festival in Istanbul in April. UK venues have programmed the band to perform and present workshops all the time reaching new audiences.
The wider interest in Bollywood has led to a rapidly growing education programme, with projects in schools in London and the north. Brass Fusion, a collaboration with the National Youth Brass Band, will take the BBB and 200 young brass players to Manchester?s Bridgewater Hall on May 1 for a joint concert including mass performances of some BBB tunes and a specially commissioned work from Errollyn Wallen. The band is a project of multi-arts company Emergency Exit Arts, which has released two CDs, the second of which (Rahmania ? the Music of AR Rahman) was one of the Sunday Times? albums of the year for 2002. The band is currently preparing its third CD, covering Hindi film hits across the decades.
The Asian music scene in the UK has moved way past the so-called ?Asian Underground? of a few years ago, with Nitin Sawhney, Asian Dub Foundation and others transcending pigeon-holes and Panjabi-MC and Rishi Rich taking Bhangra to the mainstream. At the same time, the BBB has been creating a modern British version of the Indian brass tradition that was originally exported to India in the nineteenth century, taking the band from a wedding in Southall one weekend to WOMAD the next.
Mark Allen is Bollywood Brass Band Manager. t: 020 8853 4809; f: 020 8858 2025;
e: bollywood@eea.org.uk;
w: http://www.bollywoodbrassband.co.uk