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Abhijit Nath profiles breakthrough Karnatic artist Prasanna and reviews his new album: Electric Ganesha Land |
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If there is one musical term that has lent itself to all-round derision and gratuitous misuse by many artists, it is 'fusion'; more specifically, East-West fusion. The reasons are easy to fathom: most artists are conversant in their own musical language and tradition; to step out and mold themselves into another style while retaining their own is a mammoth task. Moreover, both Carnatic and Hindustani classical music, like most other well-developed art forms, have their share of purists, for whom any deviation from their hallowed traditions is anathema.
Collaborations, past and present
Of course, there have been several successful collaborations in the past: starting with the seminal Shakti collaborations of the 70s with John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, L. Shankar and "Vikku" Vinayakaram to Brij Bhushan Kabra's "Call of the Valley" to Ravi Shankar's work with Andre Previn and Yehudi Menuhin to the late 90s revival with Ronu Majumdar, Larry Coryell, the Vinayakaram brothers, Shawn Lane and Jonas Hellborg releasing significant albums.
The problems of cohesion
In all this time, however, there were very few Indian artists who walked the tightrope perfectly. The role of both Indian and western artists in fusion projects was uneasy and undefined, often reducing to playing clichéd melodies of either genre while some semi-improv tunes were played over it. Among the few Indian artists who can claim to have mastery of the Indian idiom as well as a thorough grounding and education in western music is the Chennai-born, currently Boston-based guitarist, Prasanna.
A New Voice
What does one say about Prasanna? An artist who has such intimate knowledge of so many diverse musical forms, yet leaves his stamp on each composition of his. From traditional Carnatic kritis to Hendrix-y blues to full-on Mahavishnu Orchestra/Vital Information-esque jazz-rock, Prasanna has it all.
Prasanna first picked up the guitar at the age of 10. By the time he was 15, he was playing in successful bands in the South such as 'The Eleventh Commandment'. He then went to IIT, Chennai to study Naval Architecture and continued to work with bands such as 'The Haze', 'V-6' and the oddly-monikered 'Shakuni and the Birds of Prey'.
He left his post-IIT IT job to go to the acclaimed Berklee School of Music, whose alumni include Al Di Meola, John Petrucci and Herbie Hancock. (As an aside, AR Rahman was about to go to Berklee, but a week before his flight, he got signed to do 'Roja'! ) By this time, he had released a few Carnatic guitar albums, and is widely known for making the unmodified electric guitar a valid Carnatic instrument. He also released his first album of non-Carnatic music called "Peaceful" which had tracks ranging from Carnatic kritis to Bach-style counterpoint to jazz-fusion.
Be The Change
The real breakthrough, however, came with his second post-Berklee release, 'Be The Change'. Recorded with two separate "supergroups": one with bassist extraordinaire Victor Wooten, saxophonist Jeff Coffin (both from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) and Derico Watson on drums, and the other with reed player Andy Suzuki (Chick Corea), bassist
Alphonso Johnson (Weather Report) and drummer Ralph Humphrey (Frank Zappa), the album was a staggering tour de force.
The opening track, "Pangea Rising" gave a taste of things to come with its polyrhythmic shifts and mind-numbing 23/16 time signature. Ragabop" cleverly mixed microtonal bends (gamakas) with swing jazz elements. His impressive knowledge of konnakol (vocal percussion) was showcased on "Ta ka ta ki ta Blues". Even some fairly standard jazz-rock fusion ("Uncensored", "The Grapevine") were spiced up and made unmistakably Indian with his trademark use of gamakas. The album garnered critical acclaim from several respected jazz magazines.
Electric Ganesha Land
Prasanna's latest work, released after a two-year hiatus, hits one between the ears like a breath of fresh air, or to be more honest, a bucket of cold water. Impishly named after the Hendrix album "Electric Ladyland", the album seeks to play hard rock/blues with traditional Carnatic orchestration, in a clever reversal from his other work which has Carnatic work in a jazz-rock context. The tracks are uniformly interesting, albeit possibly not for everyone. The tone is extremely raw and raunchy (think Stevie Ray Vaughan or Joe Perry), providing a striking contrast with the traditional sound of thavil, kanjira and ghatam. There are lots of standout tracks, with even cooler track names to complete one's experience!
The album starts off with a track called 'Eruption in Bangalore', which is a clear nod to Van Halen's seminal 'Eruption', with a flurry of unaccompanied legato and tapped notes. More standout tracks include 'Dark Sundae in Triplicane' which is reminiscent of the Hellborg/ Lane albums, with it's odd meter and start-stop riffs. '9th Stone from the Sun' is an extremely catchy, hummable track as well, despite its off-kilter melody and odd-meter time signature. 'Pot Belly Blues' is a very easy listening, AOR-ish track, with faint tinges of Joe Satriani's 'Friends'.
'Sri Jimi' is possibly my favourite track on the album, with its display of how a great artist can take something as standard and cliché-prone as the blues and turn it into an exposition of the essential oneness of music. 'Iguana on a Funky Trail' has two guitar tracks: one with very funky clean playing and the other with all-out rock-and-roll mayhem (featuring the Digitech Whammy pedal, think Tom Morello of Rage Against The Machine). The album closer 'Bowling for Peace' is melodious and contemplative, with violin-like phrasing and feel. It has this odd resemblance to AR Rahman's 'Luka Chhuppi', somehow; not in terms of melody, but in terms of the feelings it evokes.
All in all, the album feels fresh, innovative and draws on Prasanna's myriad influences beautifully. The only problem is that the album is not completely cohesive-some tracks meld East and West beautifully, but some just end up sounding disjointed and slightly jarring. Nevertheless, if you believe that music truly has no boundaries (as clichéd as that may sound) and want to hear an artist who truly believes in the power of his art, you owe it to yourself to check out Prasanna.
(Abhijit Nath is an alumnus of IIM, Ahmedabad and works for a private equity firm. He is a fanatic for any technically challenging music (jazz, classical music, prog-rock and black metal).He knows that this is a terrible bore and that he needs a life, but it seems like he’s living three already (with apologies to Terry Pratchett). He harbours dreams of playing for a jazz-rock band.)
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