Sunny Jain Collective
Avaaz
© 2006 Sinj Records (616892812524)
CD IN STOCK. ORDER NOW. Will ship immediately.
SPECIAL: 30% discount if you buy more than one copy of it today!
Indo Jazz; Indo Beat; Jazz; World; Indo Jazztronic.
tracks
- 1 Sialkot
- 2 Avaaz
- 3 Pink City
- 4 Johnnie Black
- 5 Meri Bhavana
- 6 Awaara Hoon
- 7 Wo Xiang Ni
- 8 Baraat
- 9 Lazaro
try this
albums you will love
genres you will love
By Location
Recommended if you like ...
notes
New York City based drummer/composer Sunny Jain is one of a handful of players to emerge from the South Asian Diaspora as a vibrant voice for the new music of Indo Jazz. His group, Sunny Jain Collective has released 2 albums, toured India, Nepal and the States and has received international acclaim. Sunny Jain Collective was recently featured on MTV Desi cable channel for their 2006 JVC Jazz Festival performance. SJC was also featured on MSNBC’s In Style program in October 2005, broadcast throughout India, Dubai, the UK and the States.
The group’s second CD, "Avaaz" (Sinj Records), is a truly innovative step in the new music of Indo Jazz. "Avaaz" features a stunning array of pan-Indian influences from Jain’s bhangra-inspired original, “Sialkot,” to the 1951 Bollywood classic, “Awaara Hoon,” to the bhajan, “Meri Bhavana,” to Jain’s raga based melodies on “Johnnie Black” and “Baraat.” Featuring Rez Abbasi on guitar/sitar guitar, Steve Welsh on tenor and soprano saxophones/effects, Gary Wang on acoustic bass, Samita Sinha on vocals and Jain on drumset/dhol/laptop, Avaaz maintains the spirit of the Collective by weaving the multi-cultural threads of the East and West into a colorful musical tapestry, the common ground being the spirit of the drum.
Sunny Jain is a 2006 recipient of the Chamber Music America New Works grant, which commissions adventurous composers to write new music for their projects. Past recipients have included Dave Douglass, Andrew Hill, Benny Maupin, Jason Moran, Greg Osby, Dafnis Prieto and David Sanchez.
In June 2005, Jazz Hot magazine (France) did a spread on Jain in their drummer issue, which featured Lewis Nash, Horacio “El Negro’ Hernandez and Winard Harper. He was noted as a rising star for his fusion of jazz and Indian music.
Sunny Jain has performed with several world-renowned artists such as Joey Baron, Kenny Barron, Seamus Blake, Ted Dunbar, Kyle Eastwood, Kermit Driscoll, Gerald Cleaver, Norah Jones, Robyn Schulkowsky and Kenny Wollesen. He has toured Europe, Japan, India, West Africa, Canada and the States extensively, appearing at such notable venues as Madison Square Garden (NYC), Blue Note (NYC, Japan), Lincoln Center (NYC), South Asian Heritage Festival (Canada), Cork Guinness Jazz Festival (Ireland), Vitoria Jazz Festival (Spain), Pescara International Festival of Jazz (Italy), Pizza Express (England), Marian’s Jazz Room (Switzerland), Jazz Yatra Festival (India) and the Musical Society of Nigeria (Nigeria). He was the recipient of the Arts International Grant Award in 2003 and 2005. In 2002, Jain was selected as a Jazz Ambassador by The U.S. Department of State and The Kennedy Center.
SUNNY JAIN COLLECTIVE
Sunny Jain – drums/dhol/laptop
Rez Abbasi – guitar/sitar-guitar
Steve Welsh – tenor and soprano saxophones/effects
Gary Wang – bass
Samita Sinha – vocals
SELECT QUOTES
"Powering it all with shifting tempos, a vast array of percussive colors and rhythmic aplomb is bandleader Jain, bringing worlds together in a seamless fashion…a fresh concept with brilliant execution."
- Bill Milkowski, JazzTimes - November 2004
“...the total effect was electrifying and mesmerizing...Outstanding music played by musicians with fire and intellect..."
- Budd Kopman, All About Jazz – 2006 JVC Festival performance
"Sunny Jain stands out from other mainstream Jazz in North America and across the world as one who has had the courage to experiment with 'sounds.'"
- Sonu Shankar, RSJ (India) – Jazz & Blues Revival Festival [Chennai, India], January 2005
reviews
Please log in to review this album.
Not many South Asians have made inroads into the world of jazz. Percussionist Su
author: Samir Shukla (Saathee Magazine)Not many South Asians have made inroads into the world of jazz. Percussionist Sunny Jain is an innovative exception. Sunny Jain has been expanding his Indo-jazz, a hybrid of jazz and South Asian music, into the greater world of jazz for several years now. Call it jazz with a touch of Indian heritage. The group's second CD, Avaaz, features a solid collection of originals and covers including the bhangra-inspired original "Sialkot," the 1951 Bollywood classic "Awaara Hoon" and the devotional "Meri Bhavana." Samita Sinha adds a feminine touch with her vocals on several songs. Some songs are sung in Hindi as in the title song Avaaz. Jain plays drums, dhol and electronic sounds. Other musicians include Rez Abbasi (guitar, sitar guitar), Steve Welsh (tenor and soprano saxophones, effiects), and Gary Wang (acoustic bass). Jain is able to weave the subtle tones of east and west into something new, accented by his varied percussive techniques. Sunny Jain has performed with Kiran Ahluwhalia, Joey Baron, Kenny Barron, Norah Jones and Kenny Wollesen, among many others. He also played for the musical Bombay Dreams while it was running on Broadway. Sunny Jain is a promising composer along with being a top drummer. Expect many great things from this young musician.
Johnnie Black’s oomph steps on the accelerator, aided by solid drumming, shiftin
author: Sharnita K. Athwal (Eastern Eye - UK)Compassion and determination shine on the opening track Sialkot, with bhangra-laced arrangements and rhythmical complexity, followed by Avaaz, a joyful number released over a thrash/fusion hybrid. Johnnie Black’s oomph steps on the accelerator, aided by solid drumming, shifting saxophones and pluckedout sitars. Elsewhere, beats turn soulful as engaging vocals soften on Meri Bhavana’s unfussy and intimate structures. It is hard not to be captivated by the polyrhythms of Awaara Hoon, or the tight dynamics of Baraat. The Sunny Jain Collective’s unflustered energy and noteworthy variations provides a satisfying, yet intriguing listening experience.
Each track brings its own feel and surprises, and there is a constant feel of im
author: Budd Kopman (All About Jazz)The Sunny Jain Collective is part of a growing group of musicians whose roots are from South Asia (primarily India, but also countries like Cambodia and Thailand) and are naturally cross-fertilizing with other practitioners. The leaders of this movement are usually first-generation Americans with strong ties to the music of their parents' homeland. Rather than feeling trapped, cut off or shortchanged, and with the sound and spirit of American jazz in their minds and bodies, these musicians have fused the two aesthetics. To these ears, there is no doubt that this is jazz. What is extremely interesting are the musicians of other backgrounds who play in these bands and somehow understand the meaning of the music's source, tapping into it, giving to and taking from its deep well. Jain's previous release, Mango Festival (Zoho, 2004), was very well received, and Avaaz, which is Hindi for “sound” or “to call,” continues to build a group sound with the same players, plus the added vocals of Samita Sinha on five of the tracks. The band, although led by Jain, has the very strong presence not only of Rez Abbasi, a leader in his own right on guitar and sitar-guitar, but also Steve Welsh on saxophones and effects. Bassist Gary Wang works very closely with Jain as the rhythms shift between different South Asian and Western styles. Jain composed most of the tracks, some to lyrics by poets such as Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Ali Mir, plus he arranged a bhajan (religious song) and a song from a Bollywood movie, Awaara. The record is rounded out by a composition by Sinha, “Wo Xiang Ni,” on a Chinese poem, and one by Welsh, “Lazaro,” named after the patron saint of the poor. The band is a true collective, and its sound a wonderful blend of the very old from the East and the very new from the West—both Jain and Welsh employ some electronics for enhancement. Each track brings its own feel and surprises, and there is a constant feel of improvisation within loose arrangements. Sinha's vocals have the most “authentic” sound, which is subverted by the band's accompaniment. Abbasi's guitar work mixes East and West through his twisting, unpredictable lines, although the sitar-guitar definitely shifts the feel more to India. Welsh's sax sound is very full with a soft edge, allowing him to sing and fill the space with a Western feel—which is, of course, subverted by everything else that is going on. Through all of this Jain pushes the band by continually mixing and slowly merging different rhythms. Avaaz is a fine and totally engaging effort that will have you wondering whether you are in New York or New Delhi. Maybe that feeling is the gift of the jazz spirit which America has given to the world.
Avaaz leads the listener to a journey of discovery and the suprises are everywhe
author: Ernest Barteldes (All About Jazz)Everytime one feels a little jaded about jazz, out comes an album that will completely suprise. This was the case with Avaaz byt the collective led by percussionist Sunny Jain, who brings his Asian heritage into the jazz realm with incredibly welcome results. -