Artists
- Prasanna - Electric guitar
- Mridangam - Akshay Anantapadmanabhan
- Ghatam - Ravi Balasubramanian
- vAtApi ganapatim - Hamsadhwani (neraval)
- (Bhairavi swarajathi) ambA kAmAkshi - Bhairavi
- Ithu oru ponmalai pozhudu - kedAram - Ilayaraja
- kanTajoodu mee - vAchaspati
- theerAtha vilayAttu pillai - rAgaMalikA
- rAma kathA sudhA - Madhyamavati. (thani)
- venkatAchalaya nilayam - sindhubhairavi
- "Bowling for peace" - own composition
Up until this concert, the little I knew of Guitar Prasanna's music came from some Youtube recordings I listened to in college a few years ago. Now, as the artists filed in to applause and situated themselves on the stage, I struggled to recall the inital strains of the song "Bowling for Peace" after which the concert at hand was named. And soon my attention was drawn to the introduction of the artists by Shri Shekhar Viswanathan.
The artists were quite puzzlingly introduced as "great academicians" and special mention was made of their respective academic degrees along with the institutions they earned them from.
Prasanna was introduced as an alumnus of IIT Madras, which immediately elicited great murmurs of approval all around from the audience, and his Berklee background was mentioned in passing, footnote-like. I couldn't help but notice the audience's oh-so-predictable Pavlovian response of awe and respect to the mere mention of the IIT and, in contrast, the crickets that chirped in the hall when Berklee, an institution far more important than IITM in his musical journey, was mentioned.
Akshay was introduced as "an MS" in a discipline of engineering that fails my mind currently (sorry!), and Ravi, we were informed, was a robotics professor at Oregon State University.
The cult of the Carnatically Endowed Engineer was alive and well with its many worshippers and adherents on all continents, I snarkily thought to myself.
I had heard Prasanna's music at a time when my ears and musical sensibilities were not yet attuned to Carnatic music, so I was eager to reacquaint myself with his music and was glad for the live nature of the performance. As the concert commenced with the Hamsadhwani alapana, I noticed shades of Mandolin Srinivas' sound in Prasanna's, but that thought was quickly and swiftly dispelled by some decidedly juicy rock-style licks that appeared first gingerly, and later, in well-fleshed out sections during the rest of the concert. As he showed off his prowess on the instrument by doing some tapping on the fretboard, then removing his right (plucking) hand while he continued with his left, and some effects with the tone control knobs on his guitar, many jaws dropped in the audience and I even heard some appreciative "ah"s and grunts. I could tell that Prasanna was doing only some basic guitar moves as is probably his wont, not unleashing his brilliance in the full - and I wondered how the minds of those in the audience who were seeing such wizardry for the first time would be blown to bits if they were to see him in full form, or someone like Joe Satriani.
Fully instrumental concerts such as this one are always a tough thing to love for me as being bereft of lyrics, there is no way of knowing what song is being performed or worse still, the ragam. Prasanna announced the ragam and the kriti for only the first few songs and as he warmed up, dispensed with it altogether, as expected. The gaps in my understanding I filled with help from some knowledgeable audience members.
"It's a nice evening, isn't it?" Prasanna asked rhetorically, and announced that he was going to play a song that was based on this theme and gleefully challenged the audience to guess the song. To my bewilderment and suprise, "ithu oru ponmAlai pozhuthu" followed after a brief Kedaram alapana (which I incorrectly guessed as Kurinji).
The madhyamAvati main kriti featured some interludes, licks and riffs that inventively retained a Carnatic tone at their core while also shedding that mantle and foraying unfettered into the realms of improvisational jazz at times. Both Akshay and Ravi were excellent playing when playing their parts in the thaniyavarthanam, but Ravi quite obviously missed two cues from Akshay in the koraippu and seemed noticeably unfamiliar with the patterns that Akshay was playing at times. I kinda assumed that those patterns would be part of the standard repertoire and therefore well known to those in the percussion arts, but I don't know - maybe he was having a temporary brainfart. Other than that, he was excellent, and so was Akshay.
When Prasanna invited requests from the audience, Shekhar suggested that he play a Kannada song in Sindhubhairavi for the benefit of Kannadigas in the audience. "I've already played Sindhubhairavi, would you like me to play something else?" asked Prasanna, and Shekhar reiterated his request, much to my dismay and annoyance, and his choice was picked over the shouts of Reetigowla and some other ragams that came from the audience. Why not request something that hadn't been played already? Ah well...
Prasanna concluded his concert with his own composition "Bowling for Peace". Hearing the man himself play the song gave me a sudden rush of warmth as I reflected briefly on how far I'd come, metaphorically as well as physically, from the engineering college hostel room I was in when I last heard it on my laptop. It's a really interesting piece, and I'm yet to discern the many ragams that it is composed of.
As the venerable C M Venkatachalam rose to deliver his customary post-concert appraisal of the musical fare, I was consumed by curiosity as I waited with mischievous glee to see what a Carnatic purist like him would make of maverick Prasanna's unapologetically genre-bending music. I always look forward to his post-concert summaries - the consummate connoisseur that he is, he unfailingly singles out sangatis, eduppus and other elements that were, in his eyes, executed well and also throws in trivia drawing on his personal experiences with the greats of Carnatic music as well. This time, I wondered how he would spin this concert, which was unusual in many respects, the least of which was that Carnatic was only one of its many constituent elements, in politically correct terms. He sort of struggled a bit initially to find words of praise, saying that "Yes, it was Carnatic, but..." the "genre-hopping" syncretism might be "uncomfortable to many" before focusing on his prowess and dexterity on the guitar. Anyway, in the end he came out strongly in support of the music at the end and, funnily, opined that "there was value in listening to this"
What was most surprising to me, however, was my own feeling about the concert which almost exactly mirrored that of Shri Venkatachalam. I started listening to music way back on a diet of classic rock, heavy metal, etc. and while I still love and appreciate those classic songs, of late it has come to pass that I listen almost exclusively to Carnatic as my go-to. I think I'd have been more gung-ho about this concert had I come across it in my early days, but now I feel that Carnatic should be dealt with in its pure form, if at all it is included in a performance. I am obviously no one to judge the great Prasanna, and I'd be the first one to state that it is certainly the audience's responsibility to elevate itself to the point of appreciating an unfamiliar body of art, but speaking for myself (which I'm allowed to do) I'd say that my musical sensibilities have yet to evolve to fully appreciate this syncretic mishranam of Carnatic with jazz and blues.