Bryant Park Picnic Performances 2025-2026 Season Opener
An evening of South Asian music and dance
Free Event Co-presented by World Music Institute with Bryant Park
7 PM – 9 PM – Outdoors, general admission

Sunny Jain’s Wild Wild East (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings) encompasses myriad  facets of Jain’s identity both as a first-generation South Asian–American and as a global  musician, from his own family’s immigration story to his eclectic musical upbringing. He  sources musical inspiration from the scores of Bollywood classics, Punjabi folk traditions,  jazz improvisation, and rollicking psychedelic styles. Songlines (UK) called Jain “one of  the leading figures in North America’s burgeoning Asian music scene. A global musical  alchemist and cultural agent provocateur.” 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.  

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. In 2022, Jain joined Planet Drum for  their first show in 15 years, playing alongside drumming legends Mickey Hart (The  Grateful Dead), Zakir Hussain, and Giovanni Hidalgo.