Fund Raiser by Guitar Prasanna

Last Friday [01/07/2005] evening Guitar Prasanna and his band were here in DC to play live for a Tsunami fund raiser concert organized by IIT Alumni Association Washington DC.

The Talented trio consists of Prasanna on his Magic Guitar, Mike Pope on Bass and Brain Delaney on the drums. They played original compositions of Prasanna, mostly from Prasanna’s latest album “Be the change”. Though the concert started about an hour late [thanks to the Friday night Beltway traffic], it was totally fusion blast.

The drummer was simply extra ordinary; it seems Prasanna met him just few days ago. He played as though he knew them for ages. It was amazing to hear Mike Pope [on Bass]. He was so fluent with Indian classical music. He complimented “The Prasanna power” with his graceful bass playing. Trio complimented each others talent very well.

In an Indian fusion concert often I see artists trying to prove their individual talents rather than focusing on the Concept - “Fusion”. But in this concert it was totally different, I could hear the Raga in its purity clearly blending with the various Jazz and Blues progressions. It was so wonderful to hear Raga "Dharmavathi", "Kapi", "Bhilahari" blend to various jazz standards at odd time signatures [5/4, 7/8,9/8]. Drum and the Bass punctuated the melody all through without over dose. They exposed their class during solo parts. Frankly I was able to feel the blend quite well.

Artist Websites

Guitar Prasanna Mike

Thanks to Prasanna, Mike and Brain for standing up in front to support a good cause. I had chat with Prasanna few days before the concert, he told me that his artists were so considerate to travel and stay at their own expenses. They wanted to keep the production cost as low as possible. In a very good gesture, all of them being accomplished composers and music producers had their CD displayed for sale and contributed all the sales revenue towards the fund.

He also mentioned that this trio would be touring India for similar fund raisers, starting of with a show in IIT Chennai in end of January. You can check GuitarPrasanna.com for further details. This program was organized by Aid India .org, Tamil Sangam of greater Washington Dc and other DC based charities.


Ps: I did take some pictures of the concert, I will update it soon.