Sound the brass and the drum! .. .. …… .. .. Who has never enjoyed the frenzy of a brass band?

Inherited from the British Empire, the brass bands belong, in India nowadays, to tradition and are a feature of life itself. In India, there’s no marriage without a brass band!

Hailing from an ancestral family of musicians from Rajasthan, the original land of Gypsies, Hameed Khan Kawa, a talented musician and renowned artistic director, has been familiar with the fantastic sound of the Indian Brass Band since his birth and after dividing his time between Jaipur and Paris, exposing him to musical styles that were worlds away from each other Hameed Khan Kawa developed the idea of creating a brass band: the spectacular “Jaipur Kawa Brass Band”, with Western instruments: clarinet, trumpet, trombone, tuba, sousaphone, saxophone, bass drum, side drum… but undoubtedly with Indian soul.

He gathered talented musicians from renowned bands of Rajasthan, chose a wide repertoire ranging from Indian traditional music with its distinctive Gypsy sound to the popular songs of Bollywood movies. He then adds the sophisticated structures of North Indian classical music. The melodies and songs are developed with much refinement, featuring virtuoso solos and dazzling improvisations. The percussionists elaborate their fast and spontaneous playing with the sophisticated rhythms of India, providing counterpoint to the Gypsy Kalbelia danseuse and the fakir in his astonishing acts, and of course the band itself to deliver, all ten together, an unexpected and rousing musical extravaganza, the soul of contemporary India’s soul.