One word to describe Guitar Prasanna's Sep 27th concert at the Mahatma Gandhi Center would be innovation. He started off traditionally with Gana nayakam in Poorna Shadjam and then went on to the famous Shobillu Saptaswara in Jaganmohini. His Raghunatha Nannu in Swararanjani reminded the audience of the famous Raghuvamsa Sudha. His next item was Garuda Gamana - a composition of Patnam Subramanya Iyer in Nagaswaravali. His innovation was in full flow in the Hindolam piece Samajavaragamana right from the alapana where he traversed effortlessly into Shuddha Dhanyasi from Hindolam and then back. While some people were not too happy with his straying from the traditional rendering, there were many more who were thoroughly enjoying his jazz and rock cameos in the midst of the carnatic numbers. He then introduced an item from his 'Electric Ganesha Land' album Sri Jimi just before the intermission.
The concert took on a more traditional hue after the intermission with Chakkani Raja in Karaharapriya being the center piece followed by Venkata chala nilayam in Sindhu Bhairavi and Pibare Rama Rasam in Ahiri. It then took a turn back into the carnatic and western fusion when he introduced more numbers from his Electric Ganesha Land album - Pot Belly Blues, East Mada Street Meets 8th Avenue (origins of carnatic music meets the origins of Jazz apparently!) and Fourth Stone From The Sun. The last item had various Janyas of Sankarabharanam like Mohanam and Abheri played in continously varying Talas. The penultimate piece was Kaliyuga Varadane in Brindavana Saranga and he ended the concert with 'Bowling for Peace' from his album instead of the usual tukkadas and mangalam. He was excellently accompanied by S.Karthick on Ghatam/Morsing, Poongulam Subramanian on Mridangam and Bangalore Amrit Natarajan on Kanjira. Overall a very different and very enriching experience for the audience.
