Quad City Arts Visiting Artist Sunny Jain -- December 3 and 4.
Tuesday, December 3, 6 p.m.
Moline Public Library, 3210 41st Street, Moline IL
Wednesday, December 4, 10 a.m.
Geneseo Public Library, 218 South State Street, Geneseo IL
Wednesday, December 4, 7 p.m.
Butterworth Center, 1105 Eighth Street, Moline IL
Thursday, December 5, 5:15 p.m.
Muscatine Art Center, 1314 Mulberry Avenue, Muscatine IA
An Indian American dhol player, drummer, and Indo jazz composer lauded by Coda Magazine for his "groundbreaking synthesis," Sunny Jain serves as the latest guest in Quad City Arts' Visiting Artist Series, his four public events from December 3 through 5 delivering a celebration of cultural diaspora: deep-rooted tradition that ripples outward, changing – and being changed by – the cultures that it touches.
Recognized as a leading voice in the burgeoning movement of South Asian-American jazz musicians, 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 the Sunny Jain Collective. In 2002, Jain was designated a jazz ambassador by the U.S. Department of State and the Kennedy Center, 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, and in 2007, he became the first artist endorser for India's largest and oldest musical manufacturer, Bina Music.
In 2008, Jain founded the Brooklyn bhangra band Red Baraat, and three years later, the ensemble performed more than 100 club shows and festivals across the world, including Bonnaroo Music Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, and a performance at the White House and the Paralympics closing ceremony in London. Red Barat consists of dhol, drums, percussion, sousaphone, and horns, melding North Indian rhythm of bhangra with funk, 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, while the next year, Red Barat's 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 Music Festival, Pori Jazz Festival (Finland), Molde Jazz Festival (Norway), and Chicago Folks & Roots Festival.
In 2021, Jain released Phoenix Rise, a collaborative effort featuring more than 50 artists including Arooj Aftab, Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas), Endea Owens (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), and Joe Russo. Called the “Hendrix of dhol” by Manchester Salon, Jain played dhol/percussion in the first Indian Broadway show, 2004's Bombay Dreams, and made his Hollywood debut playing dhol in the movie The Accidental Husband starring Uma Thurman, Colin Firth, and Isabella Rossellini. In 2022, Jain also joined Planet Drum for their first show in 15 years, playing alongside drumming legends Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, and Giovanni Hidalgo.
During his tenure as a Quad City Arts Visiting Artist, Jain will perform free public performances and artist talks at four area venues: at the Moline Public Library on December 3 at 6 p.m.; at the Geneseo Public Library on December 4 at 10 a.m.; at Moline's Butterworth Center on December 4 at 7 p.m.; and at the Muscatine Art Center on December 5 at 5:15 p.m. For more information, call (309)793-1213 and visit QuadCityArts.com.
