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An electric Indian journey
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Prasanna's latest album Electric Ganesha Land is a unique musical exploration that yokes together the experience of Carnatic music with the imaginative wealth of classic rock
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Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
ROCKING REPERTOIRE Prasanna: "The guitar is the most versatile instrument in the world. There are so many musical styles that would never have existed without the guitar."
As the first shredded notes of "Eruption in Bangalore" explode from the guitar, the Hendrix psychedelia couldn't be more apparent. But the slide work is strongly reminiscent of gamakas on the veena. Even the melodic arrangement smacks of a Carnatic foundation. Built on that foundation, however, is a wealth of first-hand experience in jazz, blues and classic rock.
Welcome to Prasanna's Electric Ganesha Land, a hard-rocking tribute to Jimi Hendrix, which Prasanna describes as "the journey of the modern rock guitar through the ancient temple towns of south India with the sounds of Carnatic music wafting through the air".
Paying homage
At first glance, the tribute seems an unusual choice. After all, the music industry revels in the sounds of the hood, and classic rock seems the farthest thing on most listeners' minds. However, for Prasanna, there isn't any other guitarist more deserving of the tribute. "Hendrix opened the doors for musical explorations on the electric guitar. That is exactly what I do," he says at the launch of his Electric Ganesha Land, at Landmark.
There's no better way to describe this latest album than as an exploration. Backed by a powerful Carnatic percussion section featuring Haridwaramangalam A.K. Palanivel on the thavil, B.S. Purushotham on the kanjira and kunnakol, Prapancham Ravindran on the mridangam, S. Karthick on the ghatam, kunnakol and morsing and Papanasam Sethuraman on kanjira, Prasanna takes the listener through an exotic journey through a mystical middle-land, which captures the practised precision of Carnatic music and yokes it together with the capricious imagination of the music of the '60s.
Listen to the "Snakebanger's Ball", for instance, and you get hints of the dichotomy that India still lives in, at once the land of snake charmers and IT gurus. Then there's the quirky "Pot Belly Blues", a spoof on music styles like bluegrass, says Prasanna. One of the lighter, frothier songs on the album, it's a nice reminder not to take things too seriously, nicely contrasting heavier songs on the album like "Dark Sundae in Triplicane".
Other great tracks on the album include the mellow and wholesome "4th Stone from the Sun", the pensive "Bowling for Peace" and "Eruption... "— the best possible introduction to the rest of the album. With great production and a tight backing band, Electric Ganesha Land is a wonderfully varied mix of crossover music.
It is this vast potential for variety that has always drawn Prasanna towards the guitar. "The guitar is the most versatile instrument in the world. There are so many styles that would never have existed without the guitar. There wouldn't be any rock, tex mex, flamenco, blues... without the guitar. Almost every modern music style, except jazz owes a lot to the guitar," he says.
There is an added attraction on the album for most rock music fans. The liner notes for the album have been written by legendary bassist Victor Wooten of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Wooten and Prasanna collaborated on Prasanna's last album, Be The Change, besides performing numerous concerts together. Arguably one of the best bassists in the world, Wooten is a "very special musician and human being," says Prasanna. "Working with him is a humbling experience," he adds.
Besides Wooten, the roster of artistes he has jammed with is a veritable who's who of the contemporary music scene. Over the years, he has worked with everyone from Alphonso Johnson of the hugely successful band Weather Report to virtuoso saxophonist Joe Lovano to Belgian avant-garde jazz band Aka Moon.
Indeed, one of Prasanna's greatest advantages is his exposure to a wide array of musical influences. With formal training in both Carnatic classical and a degree from the Berklee School of Music, Prasanna has managed quite efficiently to absorb the best of both Indian and Western musical styles. He starts off naming the five greatest musical influences in his life, and finds he can't do it. Even before he has scratched the surface, he has already named close to a dozen musicians, including Bach, John Coltrane, Thyagaraja, Stravinsky, Hendrix and Dikshathar. "I see something of value in many different kinds of musicians. In my head they all coexist, and there is no comparison."
`Not fusion'
Despite Electric Ganesha Land and his earlier albums falling within the genre of fusion music, Prasanna is reluctant to call what he plays fusion. The term is just defensive and has different connotations in different countries, he insists, and hence means little to any musician. "There are already too many labels around and they kill the music. Why do we need to add more labels and confuse things?" As for the classicists who insist that explorations such as this dilute Carnatic music, he answers with equal vehemence: "These debates are a waste of time. I concentrate on my art and just do what comes naturally."
What comes naturally has worked quite well for Prasanna. With dozens of concerts around the world, and collaborations with some of the greatest musicians around the world, one couldn't ask for a better musical journey. One of his most memorable experiences is performing the first Carnatic concert in Alaska. "I am not trying to convert everyone to Carnatic music," he says in parting. "It's just about really experiencing the world."
RAKESH MEHAR
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