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India Concert
Review
Artist: Prasanna with Alphonso Johnson and Kenwood Dennard
Set List: Uncensored ( Prasanna)
CONCERT REVIEW: This is one of the memorable concerts of this writer's life. I also had the opportunity to witness the rehearsals and preparations. While technically there were massive difficulties and musically there were some mistakes, they always turned to gold in the hands of this significant trio. I was honored to be part of this experience. Alphonso Johnson showed much integrity on his instrument. He was proactive, helping the process of creativity along during the rehearsals with plenty of valuable suggestions from his wealth of experience. Obstacles abounded the preparation for this concert. For example, there were incredible electricity surge problems for Alphonso which threatened to ruin the sound check and cancel the show. Alphonso was able to use his expertise to make up for the shortcomings of the technical support crew at the OAC. Somehow, the show went on. (This writer has never seen a more antiquated transformer than the one provided for us at this concert.) Perhaps it was one of the first such devices ever made in India? In the final analysis Alphonso made it work! Yaaay! Prasanna led the band well with untiring positive attitude. Without the team effort and Prasanna's energetic approach ("ok, let's rehearse two more tunes! Shall we?") I feel the group would not have succeeded. Prasanna had to do ALL the legwork for this concert himself, setting up the billboard, flyers, making phone calls etc. etc. He let it be known that the promoters did NOT believe in the concert nor did they support the artists. Prasanna relates that the promoters predicted a paltry few hundred audience members to show up and instead guess how many people attended this concert: 6,000 people! Wow! :-) I had a BALL!
Apparently, some years back, Uriah Heep played at the same venue and
there was violence in the audience and the guitarist used a broken bottle
on his guitar and threw it into the audience. Ever since then the proprietors
have been strict about only allowing Indian Classical music on-stage.
This concert was strictly a mixture of Indian Classical music, plus
"JazzFusion" music. There was no violence except this group violently
exploded beyond expectations to put on a heartfelt tour de force. The
audience responded with massive roars and applause and waving and dancing
and love. LOL :-) Kenwood, too, was indefatigable here, carrying equipment and studying
the rehearsal tape over night etc. etc. Kenwood also made some corrections
in the parts without fanfare. Kenwood spent hours of quality time making the drum set come alive
with sound. At the rehearsal he started ripping of dampening material
left over from ages ago in the 1900's. He wound up using napkins provided at the venue, and duct tape he
brought along from Boston and a healthy dose of experimentation to wind
up with a low pitched full sounding kit, but with lots of punctuation!
There were NO replacement heads available, and some of the glue and
previous dampening material simply would NOT come off. (LOL this was
a slight oversight on KD'S part lol) KD discovered that the reason the
pitch of the toms would not get higher when he kept tightening the lugs
of the bottom head was because there WAS no bottom head on any of these
drums. (lol) So he utilized a tuning technique long forgotten from the 1970's: use
two napkins folded up as small as possible .Tape them down TIGHT on
the tom head. Two short strips of duct tape is sufficient. Then:
Kenwood explains that the dampening gets rid of timbale-like overtones,
but the tightness of the dampening allows the decay not to be too short. When it came time to start the concert, this group was ready. This
was in spite of the incredible obstacles. Apparently, The group started
20 minutes late. In India, especially for a non classical concert, this
is unheard of. Most such concerts begin one hour late or even later.
:-) Overall this music was complex but swinging. The Carnatic approach
to composition was intact complete with strict usage of ragas and Indian
style subdivisions of 5/4 (the common American way is to subdivide the
beat as follows:1,2,3, 1,2. but in India the common way is 1,2, 1,2,3.)
The mathematical Carnatic approach to organizing rhythms was intact.
In one song Kenwood instead of counting 1,2,3,4 as is standard in 4/4
time in America, found himself counting: Purists and Elitists in both camps (jazz and Indian classical music)
beware! Let's ALL advance together with JUSTICE!... Is elitism Justice? Alphonso's bass solo and Two Sisters composition was colorful and
full of feeling and full of grooving. His energy was truly relentless
and full of dignity . The audience was treated to artistry without anything
gaudy or cheap, and they GOTTIT! Prasanna played some very simple melodies such as this one: Prasanna played this popular Indian melody without embellishment during
his guitar solo and, of couse, then, displayed his full virtuosity.
At the same time, however, one never had the feeling Prasanna needed
to show off. The crowd was with him 1000%. Score a big one for Prasanna!
:-)
Woody , as he was called on this tour wowed the audience with a steady
and heavy rendition of "The Message" (Grandmaster Flash) which broke
into blazing fiery drum solos eventually plus unison lines he sang and
played on the synthesizer at the same time. Prasanna said, "Kenwood!
You are a quartet, Alphonso is a trio and I am a duo! We have a seven
piece BAND!" Later amended to "nine piece band" lol. Kenwood also segue'd
into Teen Town (Jaco Pastorius) and Donna Lee (Charlie Parker) then
Kenwood launched into abundant expressive Meta-Rhythms on the drumset
sparing absolutely nothing . He threw caution to the winds and Just
Advanced. He said later he knows the audience is with him when he does
his absolute best. In this case the audience went nuts! (There were
more that 6000 people in the audience) After the show, the artists were totally mobbed for about two hours
for autographs etc. There was no backstage security. It was unprecedented
and incredible. How these musicians didn't complain of writers cramp
I DO NOT KNOW. :-) Think
about it: a two and a half hour concert, and a two hour autograph signing!
Well TTFN Groove people, this is your JA Correspondent #1, signing
off! Chennai, India is GREAT! Bye!!!! :-)
Just Advance! Title: Chennai |
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