Reimagining, not wrecking, a Punjabi style

ASPEN In the realm of musical mash-ups, this one was extreme. From one side came bhangra, a South Asian folk music, sung in Punjabi and played primarily with the dhol, a two-sided drum worn around the neck, and the single-stringed plucked instrument, the tumbi. On the other side: good old American hip-hop.The combination, as far-flung as the two ingredients were, made great sense to Rekha Malhotra. The 36-year-old was born in London, spent several years in India, and moved to New York City at the age of 4. Her parents listened primarily to Indian film music which, sung in Hindi and very pop-oriented, didnt have much in common with bhangra, but it did expose her to the sounds of India. And in Queens, N.Y., she was surrounded by hip-hop.In the early 90s, Malhotra first heard bhangra, which intrigued her. Soon after, she heard the style mixed with hip-hop. That really made a lot of sense to me. Because I had grown up with hip-hop, she said by phone, from her home in the Ditmars Park section of Brooklyn, what she calls one of the new frontier neighborhoods.So the idea of mixing bhangra and hip-hop didnt originate with Malhotra. But she has brought the blend into the world. Using the name DJ Rekha, she has been staging parties, called Basement Bhangra, for 11 years at Manhattans prominent club S.O.B.s, a comfortable home for world music. (The clubs name stands for Sounds of Brazil.) In her low-key fashion, Rekha calls the gig, which is thrown monthly with a few additional special occasion parties thrown in, the longest relationship Ive had.Rekha transfers Basement Bhangra to Aspens Belly Up on Monday. The Get Lit event, which also features PremaSoul, a Los Angeles-based group that mixes Indian melodies into a foundation of contemporary jazz and r&b, is part of the Aspen Writers Foundations Aspen Summer Words Literary Festival. The festival, which runs through Thursday, June 26, also includes discussions with Indian writers. (Also presented during the festival is a Writers Foundation Lyrically Speaking event with Woody Creeker John Oates, of Hall & Oates, on Wednesday, June 25, at Belly Up.)Rekha happened to get her start in music just as she was discovering bhangra. She and some cousins attended a community event that featured a DJ. We thought he sucked. We thought we could do better, she said. Rekha and her relatives formed their own DJ-ing operation. Rekha was initially pushed into the administrative end, but when her cousins moved away, she took over on the turntables.Rekha gained a foothold playing community events, some presented by neighborhood organizations, others associated with Indian or Asian causes. When she began at S.O.B.s, the crowds at first were largely Indian It got really brown, says Rekha but by the fifth year, she noticed it had become less insular.In October, Rekha released her first CD, Basement Bhangra. Among the guests on the album is Wyclef Jean, who appears on the opening Basement Bhangra Anthem. This summer, Rekha brings her mash-up to the Rothbury Festival in Michigan, where she appears alongside the Dave Matthews Band and Primus.Not everyone is so thrilled with what Rekha has done to the Indian folk style. Its mixed results, she said. There are always music fundamentalists who dont want anything to happen to the music. But tradition keeps changing, keeps getting redefined. Its hard to say whats traditional.stewart@aspentimes.com