Friends,
Please do not buy my music from SNOCAP. God knows who the proceeds go to since I didn't even register for SNOCAP. I also don't have a clue how to get that *&^%@_ thing off. That's the reason you don't find tracks like 'The Grapevine' or 'Snakebanger's Ball' in the SNOCAP list (to be fair enough to the algorithm that put this thing in, most but not all of the music listed here is mine). If you would like to purchase my music via downloads, please do so at itunes, rhapsody or your favorite download store, so something comes back to me instead of going to an electric monk or a horse or the likes!Thanks,
Prasanna
"Raga Thodi" - Prasanna performing the traditional carnatic raga thodi on guitar - Excerpt from Prasanna's guitar instructional DVD 'Ragamorphism'.
"The Grapevine" - Prasanna - guitar, Jeff Coffin - tenor saxophone/flute, Kai Eckhardt - bass and Derico Watson - drums
Live performance at the Open Air Theatre, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, India
Prasanna plays an unusual double raga Kalpanaswara improvisation in Abheri and Mohanam - Prasanna - guitar, Haridwaramangalam A.K. Palanivel - thavil and S. Karthick on ghatam.
Excerpt from Live Carnatic concert at Parthasarathy Swamy Sabha, Chennai, India
"Dharma becomes Alibama" - Prasanna - guitar, Jeff Coffin - tenor saxophone, Kai Eckhardt - bass and Derico Watson - drums
Live performance at the Open Air Theatre, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai, India
Prasanna playing a more classical version of his Jimi Hendrix tribute 'Sri Jimi' from Electric Ganesha Land. - Prasanna - guitar, Prapancham Ravindran - mridangam and B.S. Purushotham - kanjira
Excerpt from Live Carnatic concert at Rama Bhakta Jana Sabha, Chennai, India
Excerpt of Prasanna's composition "31" from live concert- Prasanna - guitars/vocals, Anthony Jackson- bass and Omar Hakim - drums
From Live concert at Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY
'How can you play Indian Classical Carnatic music on a guitar'? is a question that was on everyone's mind when Prasanna daringly took to one of the world's most ancient musical forms on one of the world's most modern instruments - the electric guitar! 20 years on, the question is still asked by everyone but now in disbelief at how Prasanna brings out the subtlest of microtones on a standard electric guitar and goes even further by extending his signature style to Jazz, Blues, Rock, Classical music and everything that he feeds in as a contemporary musician of today.
In a world studded with brilliant guitarists, 'Prasanna plays like nobody on the planet' according to one Jazz critic. As a guitarist and composer, Prasanna's prolific body or work is as diverse and eclectic as it is integrated. This includes over eleven traditional Carnatic albums, the just released Carnatic/Rock Jimi Hendrix tribute album ‘Electric Ganesha Land’, a highly acclaimed Jazz Fusion album 'Be the Change' featuring several Grammy Award winning artists from the Jazz world, an eclectic solo guitar album 'Peaceful', a special triple guitar project 'Guitars' with the Belgian band Aka Moon, an original score for contemporary dance theater adaptation of Shakespeare's 'Tempest' with a premiere in Sydney, Australia, a work for Contemporary and Fusion dance 'Sanaatana' premiered at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, yet another work for contemporary dance 'Soliloquy', numerous sessions work on multi-platinum Indian film soundtracks for such top composers as A.R. Rahman, Illayaraja and many more. Prasanna’s first venture as full-fledged film composer is for the upcoming film ‘Framed’ by Indian film-maker Chetan Shah. Consistent with Prasanna’s ideals of pushing the envelope in every musical situation, he has composed and the recorded full score for ‘Framed’ entirely on the guitar with no other instrumentation. His orchestration and arranging credits for A.R. Rahman include the title score for the Oscar nominated Bollywood film 'Lagaan'. Prasanna's acclaimed guitar instructional DVD 'Ragamorphism', gives an in-depth look at how he stretches the boundaries of improvisation.
The North Sea Jazz Festival, Middelheim Jazz Festival, Festival Guitares Du Monde, La Fete de la Musique, Les Orientales De St. Florent Le Vieil, Festival Jazz En Artois, PanaFest, Lotus world music festival are some of the top international festivals Prasanna has performed at. He has performed/recorded with legendary names in the Jazz/ Fusion world including Joe Lovano, Larry Coryell, Victor Wooten, Airto Moreira, Omar Hakim, Alphonso Johnson, Anthony Jackson, Steve Smith, Kenwood Dennard, Jeff Coffin, David Gilmore, Aka Moon, Kai Eckhardt and from the Indian music world such as A.R.Rahman, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Illayaraja, Dr. L. Subramaniam, Umayalpuram Sivaraman, Trichy Sankaran and several others.
With an engineering degree in Naval Architecture from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he went on to pursue his passion for music and graduated Magna-Cum-Laude with an honors degree from the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston. His multi-faceted musical personality has been recognized with such diverse awards as the 'Lifetime Achievement Award for Carnatic music for 2003' from H.H. Sri Jayendra Saraswathi, India's most revered spiritual leader and 'Acharya' of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam, 'The Berklee College of Music Guitar Achievement Award' (for outstanding work as a Student Jazz guitarist'), 'The Berklee College of Music-Composition Achievement Award' (for outstanding work as a Student Classical composer) and many others.
Prasanna is also a respected teacher in a multitude of musical disciplines including Carnatic music, Applications of Carnatic music in contemporary jazz, Jazz improvisation, Composition and many more. Some of Prasanna's students at various times include such talented musicians as guitarists David Fuiczynski, Gustavo Assis Brasil, Rubens De La Corte, Dejan Eskarica, Greg Passler, Russell Kelly, Marin Bucevic etc, trombonist Garo Saraydarian, drummer Mauricio Zottarelli, Violinists K. Ishibashi, Brit Lundgren etc, Pianist/Composer Marc Rossi, vocalists Ivana Gomez, Shyam kumar etc.
As a true artist, Prasanna is both a traditionalist and modernist and everything in between.
Prasanna's official web site is
http://www.guitarprasanna.com
