Raya Brass Band, Sandaraa

Since 2008 Raya Brass Band has thrilled audiences with its energetic brand of soul shaking, border defying dance music. Given the way these five musicians electrify clubs, festivals, underground parties, and even subway cars with their riotous performances, it’s no wonder that they’re often mistaken for a band twice the size. The members of the band all bring their unique voices to the group, creating a sound informed as much by their love for the fierce and seductive music of the Balkans as it is by New Orleans brass bands, punk rock, out jazz, and a host of other international sounds. When they put it all together, this hard working band gets straight to the point, dancing, sweating, and shouting alongside its audience.

“This Brooklyn collective gleefully upends traditional wedding music of the Balkans and Greece, undercutting regional reeds and brass with decidedly American funk pulse.”—New York Times

“Watch as five people conjure a massive party around them. Then see if you can resist the temptation to get up and start dancing. It’s pretty unlikely.”—Pop Matters

“The wild … stylings of this band invoked such a frenzy that several people questioned their own existence after their own souls leapt from their body and danced right out in front of them.”—What Weekly, Baltimore

“A wild ride of genre blending that doesn’t call it a night just because the sun is coming up.”-Midwest Record

“Unhinged energy and dizzying skill.”—New York Daily News


Sandaraa is a new band from Lahore, Pakistan and Brooklyn, New York. The group is fronted by vocalist Zeb Bangash (Zeb and Haniya) and features Brooklyn musicians Michael Winograd on clarinet, Eylem Basaldi on violin, Patrick Farrell on accordion, Yoshie Fruchter on guitar, Benjy Fox-Rosen on bass and drummer Richie Barshay. Sandaraa explores a vast repertoire of South Asian material (from Balochistan, Afghanistan and beyond,) while blending it with the sounds of Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and more. The group was founded in the fall of 2013, with the help of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance, and the MAP fund.