Shades of Grey

We spent several hours at Bradford Mela on Sunday. Mela is a Sanskrit word for gathering, we were informed by someone with a VIP badge in one of the exhibit tents. He also said that it is pronounced to rhyme with “fella” rather than “Shiela”.

My eye was caught by a large screen TV featuring someone playing a trombone and so we wandered in to one of the stage tents to take a look. Here we found a band called Ronak Baja, an Edinburgh Indian street band with a twist. They describe their music as a fusion of traditional Scottish with contemporary Bollywood, Bhangra & Jazz.

Here is a thirty second snip of them in action. Sorry for the intrusive Steadicam operator.

I enjoyed them at the time and had a quick dip into their website and Myspace page last night, reprising their music. I then put it to the back of my mind until I found myself humming one of their tunes on the way home tonight so they have obviously made an impression.

Their percussion consists of four musicians- snare/cymbals, side drum and two Dhol drums. The Dhols are very interesting as they provide buckets of bass from one end (using an oddly curved stick) and plenty of rhythm from the other. A trombonist and a trumpeter are joined by a sax player and to top it all off, the eighth musician plays bagpipes. This makes for a very unique sound and they seem to be in demand, even playing the prestigious Mumbai Festival (or more accurately, festivals as there are ten of them)

So, why not open up this page in another window, turn your speakers up and leave them on in the background while you surf? There are four songs totalling fourteen minutes or so and you will find your toes twitching.

Even if you hate bagpipes!