Bollywood Brass Band

A brass band in London that plays Bollywood - Indian filmi - music might seem unlikely. However, there's a strong Indian brass tradition - a legacy of the Raj- and there is such a band, called, remarkably, the Bollywood Brass Band, which has been in existence for almost a decade, a firm branch of the burgeoning Anglo-Asian music scene, with one self-titled album under their belts, and a new release on the way.

"We were a street band already," explained member Mark Allen, "with saxes, brass and drums, playing world music for festivals and parades (called Crocodile Style, it still exists and plays in its own right and as an optional extra when we are booked as the Bollywoods). A promoter asked us if we could do something special for Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, and we said "Not this year, but maybe next". Meanwhile, the International Festival of Street Music brought the excellent Shyam Brass Band from Jabalpur to the UK, and we rehearsed and performed with them during their visit. The other key was meeting Johnny Kalsi, our main man on dhol drum. Johnny is now with Afro-Celt Sound System, and has his own group The Dhol Foundation - back then he was looking to expand out of the Bhangra scene, and his dhol playing gave us a distinctively British Asian sound, so we weren't just playing in the style of an Indian brass band. Johnny's a fantastic player and a charismatic performer - he teaches too, and his best students are now established in their own right and playing with his other bands, like us, Trans Global Underground and Fun-Da-Mental."

"The hardest thing is to get up at 6am on Sunday to play outside the bridegroom's house as he leaves to get married - that's not why most people become musicians!"

While there was no shortage of brass players in England's capital, Allen admitted that it was harder "to find players prepared to learn by heart massive amounts of music, wear costumes and do dance steps. The hardest thing is to get up at 6am on Sunday to play outside the bridegroom's house as he leaves to get married - that's not why most people become musicians!"

Their roots are in the wedding and street parade scene, and they've remained very true to that, although these days they also play a lot of festivals in the summer.

"We're part of a company called Emergency Exit Arts which does street events, so we have always played for parades, especially to celebrate Diwali. During the peak wedding season over the summer we're mainly playing festivals, with weddings when we can - we did 3 weddings in January in our nice warm winter costume thankfully. We play both on and off stage, and really like to do both."

Back in ‘92, as they were taking shape, they began with a Bollywood repertoire from the Shyam Brass Band, and over the years they've added to it, bringing in some Bhangra and pieces by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, in addition to focusing heavily on the work of filmi composer A.R. Rahman.

"Bollywood hits are great tunes,"Allen noted, "and our wedding audience want the latest hits each year so we try and oblige them. Our arrangers (all players in the band) choose the ones they think will work best when translated into a wind and drums format. Bollywood music directors use very colourful sounds, with unusual rhythms and harmonies, which gives a lot to work with - although their music has become more Westernised in recent years which makes some things easier but can bland out as well. A.R. Rahman is a wonderful composer, and has also led a revolution in production quality using modern digital techniques. Musically he brings in a lot of South Indian vocal and drum styles, but he seems to listen to everything from everywhere, so you could say he is a world music artist in a similar way to auteur producers like Michael Brook. We did two songs from one of his big films ("Bombay") on the first album, and they're staples of our live set."

In fact, the band has just finished recording an entire CD of Rahman pieces, some famous, others obscure. While their debut had them playing their regular set live in the studio, this will feature "more different percussion sounds especially, with tabla and dholak and other drums as well as our usual drummers. Aside from that there are no personnel changes, but we are using some other instruments that members in the band play. We have been adding instruments in live shows as we do more stage gigs - it helps that we don't have to carry them like in the street. We plan a June release."

Their debut also included a pair of remixes that spun the sounds in a very different and unexpected fashion, but one that made sense given both the British music climate and the fact that they "listen to remixes of Bollywood and Nusrat and lots else, and we will be doing more remixes of our stuff - there should be some on the new album. The two on the first album are pretty different from each other, and we particularly like the sambhangra version of "Gur Nalon Ishk Mitha" because it's so groovy and uses our horn parts in a creative way. It's based on a live project we have done that combines samba and Bhangra music and dancers - our producer Joe Cohen teamed up with Larry Whelan from the Natacha Atlas band to do the remix. That remix has appeared on various compilations (World 2000 on EMI, Future World Funk 2) and got airplay through people like Charlie Gillett. We're also starting to use it in live shows, with the samba drummers on a track rather than live, as well as a dub version of "Pardesi" from the first album. But we still stay a brass band, and we still play weddings!"