Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Swinging strings
|
Guitarist Prasanna to launch the Hendrix-tribute album in the city
|
ELECTRIC NOTES Prasanna
Being a guitarist, Prasanna has mastered his flair of pulling the right strings and hitting the right chord with his devoted audience of guitar lovers. Like he did at Bangalore during the weekend, when he did four shows in three days to promote his latest album `Electric Ganesha Land.' On Saturday evening, Prasanna will launch the Hendrix-tribute (with Carnatic influences) album at Landmark, Spencer Plaza, at 6.30 p.m. with a brief performance.
"I thought about a tribute to Jimi Hendrix... Hendrix opened up the doors for a lot of exploration of the electric guitar. It's been 35 years since he died. No other guitarist has been that influential as far as the electric guitar is concerned. In the last few years, I've been pushing the whole aesthetic of new expressions on electric guitar... that come basically from my playing Carnatic music. No matter what I play, there's some kind of distinct identity that comes out. I wanted to take that element and do something spontaneous."
"What happens when you give a kid a crazy toy and the kid just does a lot of things, no matter whether it is dangerous or not. This is just like that. The idea was purely to go back to a stage to go rock out in the studio like I would have done in the Mardi Gras in 1984. But, with experience I've gained in life. So it still has that raw energy and immediacy. And at the same time, the fact that it has this Carnatic touch makes it more sophisticated."
Given that he's always done what he wants to do, Prasanna does not like the term `market' because he says it is a term defined by somebody else. "I do everything on my own. People need to keep doing what they do to change the face of things here. I feel a little more responsible to take that to its logical extreme. How can we show something that only India can produce? To put it simply, EGL could be an album that could have been made only by an Indian guitar player. And at the same time, it stands on its merit. Your world music fans will get into this. The Carnatic lovers will get into this. Maybe they will take to rock music. Maybe rock fans will think that Carnatic is more attractive than they thought. In my own way, I'm trying to open this dialogue between what can come out of India that is hip, trendy and contemporary... and what has value, that can come only out of India." He is confident that his music will cut across boundaries around the world.
"Guitar is still the most popular instrument anywhere in the world. There are millions in the world clued into the guitar thing. Most guitarists have a reach beyond guitar players. As long as this world has people who love guitar and music coming out of the guitar, there is a market for any guitar driven album."
SUDHISH KAMATH
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
