Butter Chicken is a collaborative effort by musicians across several disciplines to explore the intersection of South Asian music, a baraat band, and a New Orleans-style brass band. This music is community music, and Butter Chicken explores South Asian cultural practices to examine how to blend the sounds of traditional and popular music from the subcontinent with modern world music and American musical genres. The resulting sound and concert experience combines the community, joy, and movement of a wedding ceremony with the power and improvisation of a jazz group. Co-founded by Catie Hickey (trombone, arranger) and Akshat Jain (Sousaphone and manager), the group is a collaboratively led band featuring Kabir Dalawari (Dhol) and Kyle Brooks (saxophones). Butter Chicken Brass Band regularly works with a rotating cast of in-demand players from the Chicago area.
Butter Chicken was fortunate enough to receive a 2022 Department of Cultural Affairs and Cultural Events (DCASE) grant, through which we worked with members of Funkadesi to compose our first original tunes. In 2025, we were awarded a Night Out in the Parks (NOITP) grant, which allowed us to develop and present three Sensory-Friendly Baraats throughout Chicagoland.
Butter Chicken is quickly becoming a staple in the Chicago desi community, performing weddings, partnering with Chicago’s desi organizations like Chicago Kasam, and performing regularly for Navy Pier’s annual Holi Festival.
Core Band
Akshat Jain
Akshat Jain (he/him) is a Chicago-based musician, educator, band leader, and arts administrator from Vadodara, India. He has lived in Zambia, the USA, Thailand, and Canada. Akshat holds Tuba Performance degrees from Interlochen Arts Academy, Ball State University, and DePaul University.
He works in Chicago and travels nationwide. Akshat co-founded the Butter Chicken Brass Band and Tuba Force and is an executive board member of Mucca Pazza, a 30-member punk “marching band”. As an orchestral player, Akshat has performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Milwaukee Symphony, and many more.
He maintains a private studio in Chicago and offers online lessons. He also instructs at the Interlochen Summer Low Brass Intensive and has led masterclasses at DePaul and Ball State Universities. From 2019 to 2024, he was Tuba Faculty and Off-Site Band Director at the Merit School of Music. His influences include Matthew Lyon, Floyd Cooley, Warren Deck, Andy Smith, and Gene Pokorny.
Kabir Dalawari
Kabir Dalawari (he/him) is a drummer, composer, and educator based in Chicago, Illinois. His newest record, Last Call, presents a new book of kinetic and exciting originals. "This Sophomore release showcases Dalawari as a facile drummer and fully matured composer whose rhythmic adeptness and penchant for melody, harmony, and dynamic fuel the seven appealing tracks, Reminiscent of the Brian Blade Fellowship." - Downbeat Magazine (Bill Milkowski).
As a bandleader, Dalawari frequently showcases his music at premier Chicago venues, including Andy's Jazz Club, Evanston SPACE, Constellation Chicago, Fitzgerald's, and more. As an educator, Dalawari holds a faculty position at Amos Alonzo Stagg High School and has conducted clinics at DePaul University and Loyola University Chicago.
Catie Hickey
Catie Hickey (she/her) is a trombonist, educator, and arts advocate based in Chicago. She is the founder of Brass Beyond, a non-profit organization dedicated to expanding opportunities for female and gender expansive brass musicians through workshops and performances.
Ms. Hickey currently serves on the faculties of Loyola, DePaul, North Park University, and the University of Illinois-Chicago. Catie's performance experience covers nearly every trombone setting. She honed her skills touring with the Foothills Brass Quintet (2010-2013) and has played with symphonies in Calgary, St. Louis, Rochester, and Culiacán, Mexico. Locally, she performs in theater pits as part of the Chicago Federation of Musicians Local 10-208 and with the Butter Chicken Brass Band, a Southeast Asian brass ensemble band. Catie often attends Trombonanza, Urubrass, and other brass workshops in Latin America. She graduated from Eastman School of Music (B.M. in Jazz and Contemporary Media) and Rice University (M.M. in Trombone Performance).
Kyle Brooks
Kyle Brooks is a saxophonist, songwriter, and educator who actively performs across the Midwest and beyond. While currently completing his doctorate in Jazz at the Jacobs School of Music and serving as an adjunct faculty member at Triton College, Brooks consistently weaves a rich musical tapestry to provide listener-oriented experiences in new music and to recreate distinct musical styles of the 20th and 21st centuries for audiences abroad. With roots tracing back to the vibrant music scene in Chicago, Brooks has lived in Northwest Ohio and near Indianapolis, continuously engaging with various musical styles, including Jazz, Rock, Cumbia, South Asian, Folk, Electronic Music, and more. These facets, combined with Brooks’ passion for education, especially teaching music lessons to students in underserved communities, create a wide-ranging connection with people from different backgrounds, which translates into the unique musical personality he brings to each performance.