Trailer of 'Smile Pinki', 2009 Academy Award winner for 'Best Documentary - Short Subject' - directed by Megan Mylan with music composed by Prasanna. Trailer courtesy of smiletrain.org
"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 as it is integrated. This includes over eleven 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, and numerous guitar tracks on multi-platinum Indian film soundtracks for such top composers as A.R. Rahman, Illayaraja and many more.
Prasanna has composed original music for documentary films such as the 2009 Oscar winner 'Smile Pinki' and feature films such as 'Framed'. His original scores for contemporary dance theater include Shakespeare's 'Tempest' in Sydney, Australia, 'Sanaatana' in London, UK, 'A Story and a Song' in Boston, MA, 'Soliloquy' in Chennai, India and several more, His orchestration and arranging credits include the title score for the Oscar nominated Bollywood film 'Lagaan' with music composed by A.R. Rahman. 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 festivalsPrasanna has performed at. He has performed/recorded with legendary names in the Jazz/ Fusion world including Joe Lovano, Larry Coryell, Anthony Jackson, Omar Hakim, Victor Wooten, Airto Moreira, Alphonso Johnson, Aka Moon, Trilok Gurtu, Steve Smith etc 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.
Prasanna is a member of the 'Ragabop trio' with drummer Steve Smith and Saxophosit George Brooks and yet another trio called 'Tirtha' with pianist Vijay Iyer and tabla player Nitin Mitta. Prasanna is also a member of Vijay Iyer's Quintet.
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.
Prasanna is the President of Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music, India's first professional college for contemporary music
Prasanna's official web site is http://www.guitarprasanna.com
Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music web site is http://www.sam.org.in
