Bhangra, Babylon and the Blues
Bhangra, Babylon and the Blues brings together the Grand Union Orchestra’s South Asian, African and Caribbean performers and jazz soloists, and explores particularly the musical styles the title suggests - bhangra and Bollywood, calypso and reggae, West African drumming and the music of the South African townships and powerful big band jazz and blues.
The music is drawn from the best of Tony Haynes’s compositions for the Orchestra’s dozen or more shows over the last 25 years, and the songs touch on events like the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, the independence of Bangladesh and the experience of migrants and refugees today.
The line-up includes trumpets Claude Deppa and Paul Jayasinha and Kevin Robinson; saxophones Chris Biscoe, Tony Kofi and Louise Elliott; trombones Tim Smart, Ros Davies and Harry Brown, with Andy Grappy on tuba; and multi-instrumentalist Gerry Hunt, Andres Lafone (bass guitar) and Brian Abrahams (drums). Other performers in the mix include Shahadat Hossein Khan (sarod) or Baluji Shrivastav (sitar, dilruba), Yousuf Ali Khan (tabla, dholak) and the voices of Lucy Rahman, Jonathan Andre and Richard Scott.
Listen to tracks by from Bhangra, Babylon and the Blues
Paradise Awaits
Perfumes of Paradise Blues
Cano
The Song of Reconciliation
Watch videos
Bhangra Brass
Collateral Damage
The Perfumes of Paradise Blues
