Even in 2020 we were lucky enough to have Yousuf Ali Khan, of Grand Union Orchestra, bring ‘Bengal to Bethnal Green’ to Rich Mix in February to celebrate both International Mother Tongue Day and Bangladesh Independence Day.

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, 2021 will sadly be the first year where we will not be celebrating under the Rich Mix roof. However, on the 50th year of the Independence of Bangladesh, we thought we’d look back at some of the spectacular events that we have happened over the years, with one of our long-standing partners Grand Union Orchestra.

We caught up with Tony Haynes and Yousuf Ali Khan from Grand Union Orchestra about the previous events they have organised to honour this day.

What is Grand Union Orchestra?

TONY: It’s a music and theatre touring group. It came about because I wanted to write a show about migration and to do that I felt it was only right to find performers and musicians – we’re not really actors, but all our performances have dramatic elements – that were able to convey that authentically. We have to have lived the lives of the stories that we’re telling. So for that first show we had three performers with those lived experiences, and that’s what Grand Union has been ever since. We’ve continued to embrace more and more musical cultures, and continued to tell stories related to those musicians, or stories they have the right to tell, and to represent society as we live in it today.

We also run workshops, we have a Youth Orchestra that’s based at Rich Mix and we do a lot of work with local communities, especially with East London’s Bengali community.



What is your relationship with Grand Union Orchestra?

YOUSUF: I have been working with Grand Union Orchestra for 26 years now as a tabla player and teacher. What I love about it is that it’s not only about one thing or one group of people – it’s about the world, sharing all kinds of music and learning and developing music together. And we’re not just playing music – everyone feels like a brother, or a friend. It just makes me happy!

TONY: Grand Union is an independent artist-led company. For me, I’m a creative artist; I formed the company in 1982 and remain the composer and musical director, but all the musicians who are involved have their own personalities. So it’s kind of a symbiotic relationship – I write music that they play, but everyone brings a bit of themselves to it. My job is to produce the work, and then the other musicians lead the workshops and other things that we do. But everything is related to our central ethos.


Bengal to Bethnal Green is now an established event. How did it begin? 

YOUSUF: The idea for ‘Bengal to Bethnal Green’ and I think what’s unique about it is if we think about how when people first came to East London and how they survived, what they brought, what they had was something very unique, which was their culture. That culture you cannot buy – it stays with you until you die. It’s always in your heart; things like songs, singing. And you can learn it, but it doesn’t need to be learned – you can just sing. Singing culture is something that has always stayed with Bengali people.

So, for ‘Bengal to Bethnal Green’, we have mixed groups of musicians from all kinds of backgrounds but who all live here in the UK, all playing and hearing Bengali songs. I think it’s very important for people to understand each other’s culture, culture is for sharing. We have to be broad minded, and that’s what we want to do with the shows.


Bengal to Bethnal Green, 2013


Tony and Yousuf, what have been some of your favourite memories from the ‘Bengal to Bethnal Green’ events? 

YOUSUF: One of my best memories is a show from 3-4 years ago. It was one we did with one of Bangladesh’s, and the world’s, best musicians, Shahadat Hossein Khan – a maestro of Indian classical music. He unfortunately passed away about four months ago due to COVID, he and a local folk singer called Hashi Rani did a show together. Hashi was very nervous about performing with him, but we knew she’d be great and together they did such a wonderful show. Putting folk music and classical music together worked so well! Our last live show, in February 2020, was also very special.

TONY: Fairly recently, maybe Autumn of 2019, we did a show with Lucy Rahman and Shyamal Chowdury, a performer who was also a cultural attache at the time, at the High Commission. He’s a great singer, he knew Lucy’s father and knew all the songs, and is a fantastic interpreter. It’s not recorded I don’t think but it was just the delight, for Lucy, of hearing her music, her father’s songs, interpreted by someone who just set them alight that was incredible. And the sparks they struck off each other, too.

Can you tell me a bit about other events Grand Union Orchestra have organised to honour Independence Day of Bangladesh, such as the spellbinding The Mother, The River?

TONY: The Bangladesh war of independence, in one way or another, has come up in three or four different shows. We did a show called ‘If Paradise’, and the Bengali experience appeared in that. In 2005 we did a show called ‘On Liberation Street’, and that’s where ‘The Mother The River’ came in. That show was about the ending of wars, really, wars we ought to know more about.

And then in 2015 we did ‘Undream’d Shores’, a show about migration, that represented the Bengali experience. The subject of that show was a piece called ‘Red Soil’, written in both Bengali and English, by a writer-actor called Saikat Ahamed. That was a generational thing – a father who had served in the war and his son. So Bangladesh independence threads into the work generally and in lots of ways.



The Mother, The River  – performed in Leeds


Why do you think it is important to celebrate Bangladesh Independence Day?

YOUSUF: Bangladesh is a young country, and it’s developing very fast, and people have an idea of it as a poor country – but things are getting better. There’s always some kind of noise and politics, but there’s no war, there are jobs, the economy and culture are getting stronger. Everything together, it’s all worth celebrating. Bangladeshi people can be proud of their country.

TONY: For me, and some people may see it differently, it’s about maintaining a connection between British Bengalis and their heritage, which is extremely important, but it’s also about a constant reminder of the battle against authoritarianism. It’s an opportunity to draw attention to that, and remind ourselves of what can happen.


I understand that Grand Union Orchestra have toured in Bangladesh, as documented in Bangla Jazz, can you tell us a bit about this experience?

YOUSUF: Touring in Bangladesh was wonderful. Some people sponsored us to go, so we went over and performed. People loved it so much we got invited to go back a second time. One time we went was just before the London Mela festival, and we did a show with three singers from Bangladesh – Sumi, Kala Miah, and Meherun Kanak. It was so successful we were able to bring the Bangladeshi singers over to London to perform at Mela. And we did a tour also with them – outstanding concerts here and in Bangladesh. I think local musicians will remember it forever.

TONY: We’ve been to Bangladesh a few times now, four or five. It came about because Yousuf, who had lived there, had connections. He’s a very popular man! We played a few times with different combinations of performers and gradually built up this connection.


Bangla Jazz: Grand Union in Dhaka


Can you share some memories from the tour? 

YOUSUF: In Western music, the musicians know when to come in because it’s in the scoring. If you forget, you can see it there in the music. In Bangladesh, it’s not written – you know when to come in by counting. One time someone forgot, but it didn’t matter. Everyone just improvised and it worked so well.

We’re not a symphony orchestra. I believe that music is you – you can learn the structure, learn the music, but what are you doing? What is your music? Grand Union Orchestra say do it from your heart, whatever you feel like. Use the structure but make it into something that comes from yourself.  Always try to make something interesting.

TONY: My favourite memory is a bit incongruous – we went to The Dhaka Club, and there’s a notice outside which says ‘no horns’.  It refers to car horns, but the image on the sign looks like a bugle with a line through it. So we got the trumpet player, Claude, to play his trumpet standing next to the sign. And we were about to go in and do a show! That was about a day or two before the Goethe Institute – it’s in the Bangla Jazz film.


Considering it’s been a very hard year for musicians and for the UK’s Bangladeshi community, what do you see as your hopes and plans for the future?

YOUSUF: During COVID I’ve started teaching online. In the future, people’s priorities might change ­– they might not have money for learning or music, they have to prioritise spending their money on other things. I’m slightly concerned about that, but I’m staying positive. The show must go on! We just have to think about how that happens.

TONY: The plan is to complete this phase on 21 Dec, the date the war ended, and we want to celebrate that but also to take this story around the world as well. What we would like to do is more exchanges, and to bring more people over to perform, but it’s been difficult for us to get funding to do them.

‘Bengal to Bethnal Green’ has taken place at Rich Mix since it started in 2012. We hope to welcome Grand Union Orchestra back to our stages someday soon.