About
“One of the leading figures in North America’s burgeoning Asian music scene. A global musical alchemist and cultural agent provocateur.”
“The indefatigable drummer and dhol player Sunny Jain is an unrepentant maximalist-were he a visual artist, one imagines bright-hued paints splattered across his canvas, his floor, and perhaps his ceiling. Think of a genre, and it’s probably somewhere in his compositions, yet the musician’s hullabaloo stands on considered conceptual ground. ”
“Creatively and ideologically, this is a perfect storm for Jain. Even in his already formidable body of work, “Wild Wild East” stands out as an album that not only deserves to be heard, but needs to be listened to. An understanding of the stories he tells here with such musical brilliance is liable to change hearts and minds for the better. ”
“Many of these composition are intellectually thrilling to unravel. In “Wild Wild East,” shimmering walls of sound feel like floating face-down in a pool and watching light patterns dance on the floor.”
The career of Sunny Jain is a celebration of cultural diaspora: deep-rooted tradition that ripples outward, changing – and being changed by – the cultures that it touches. He is a composer, drummer, dhol player and thought leader.
Jain was a 2023-24 Visiting Scholar and Artist in Residence at Wesleyan University, where he developed his first music theatrical show, Love Force. Drawing on Jain’s autobiography to create an immersive performance inspired by the concept satyāgraha (insistence of truth), the show reflects on the multiple identities so many immigrant families confront in the process of staying connected to the past and imagining new futures. Development of the show began in 2021, following a MAP Fund award and then in 2022, Jain was awarded a New York State Council on the Arts grant and a Joe’s Pub New Voices commission for continued support of Love Force. Love Force will be touring 2025-26.
Most recently, Jain has been announced as a 2025 commissioned artist by Soho Repertory Theater, a cultural pillar of NYC, notable for producing avant-garde plays by contemporary writers.
On February 21, 2020, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings released Jain’s first album in over a decade, entitled Wild Wild East. Songlines (UK) listed the it among their top 10 global music albums of the year, and Jain was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered with Ari Shapiro. His 5 piece band (drums, vocals, sax, guitar, bass) delivered a fiery NPR Tiny Desk Concert in 2024. They toured North America appearing at the iconic Monterey Jazz Festival, Calgary Jazz Festival, Victoria Jazz Festival, The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, National Museum of Asian Art, and the historic Harlem Stage in NYC. In 2022, the band made a milestone tour to Pakistan headlining Music Mela in Islamabad, the Lahore Jazz Festival and performing with master Sufi dhol drummers Nasir Sain Wajdani and Sain Tanveer. Just months prior, the group performed on the National Mall in Washington D.C. for the renowned Smithsonian Folklife Festival.
In 2022, Jain also joined Planet Drum for their first show in 15 years, playing alongside drumming legends Mickey Hart (The Grateful Dead), Zakir Hussain, and Giovanni Hidalgo. He also joined Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, The Musical, as music producer.
In 2021 during the pandemic, Jain released Phoenix Rise, a collaborative effort featuring over 50 artists such as Grammy winners Arooj Aftab, Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Adrian Quesada (Black Pumas), and Endea Owens (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert). Accompanying the full digital album is a 72-page physical book that combines music, art, photography and planet-based recipes, all in the name of social justice. As executive producer and music producer, Jain partnered with Center for Constitutional Rights to fundraise and advocate for the work they do.
In 2018, Jain became musical director for the OBIE award-winning theatrical show, The Jungle. That same year, he also musical directed the massive celebration for Lincoln Center’s 60th Anniversary. In 2014, NPR commissioned Jain to premiere a piece for “Make Music New York” day. Jain’s “100+ BPM” convened more than 350 musicians on the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library, including drum lines from the New York Jets, New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets.
Called the “Hendrix of dhol” by Manchester Salon (UK), Jain is most known for founding the pioneering band Red Baraat, a frenzied fusion of bhangra, hip-hop, jazz, rock, and sheer, unbridled energy. NPR called them “the best party band in years” and their 2017 NPR Tiny Desk concert was touted as the 8th best TDC of all time by New York Magazine. Red Baraat has toured the globe the past 16 years with stops at Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits, Bumbershoot, New Orleans Jazz Fest, Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festivals (Australia, New Zealand, Spain, UK), Dubai World Expo 2021, just to name a few. Along the way they sold out rooms as diverse as the Luxembourg Philharmonic and the New York City’s legendary rock club Bowery Ballroom, and performed at the request of The White House (Obama), TED, London Olympic Games, and Padma Lakshmi’s Blossom Ball. They have released 6 albums with numerous accolades from major media outlets and ranked in top 10 lists on Billboard, Apple Music and World Music Charts Europe.
In 2015, Jain had the honor of serving on a panel for a White House Asian American and Pacific Islander event, in which discussions centered on the intersection of art, culture and funding. He has been called upon to deliver talks, join panels and/or lead musical workshops at Harvard University, Yale University, New York University, Wesleyan University and numerous performing arts institutions around the world. Jain is also the author of 2 instructional drum books for Alfred Publishing: Drums Atlas: INDIA and The Total Jazz Drummer.
In 2005, Jain founded the boutique artist-booking agency, Jainsounds, to offer high-quality live music for events and functions for the South Asian-American community. His company created the first baraat brass band in the States, an 18th century Indian wedding tradition, as well as the unique Bollywood Jazz Ensemble.