Review by: ANGEL ROMERO

Mara is an excellent album and the soundtrack to a multimedia show. The artists behind the project are sibling collaborators Aditya (vocals) and Mythili (Bharata Natyam dance) Prakash.

The album features a thrilling mix of South Indian classical music, jazz and other elements. The vocals featured include Indian classical and the vocal percussion known as konnakol. Throughout the album you’ll find masterful performances by percussion, Indian flute and violin masters from India plus a jazz horn and piano section. The fusion performances feel like a 21st century Shakti.

The lineup on the Mara albums includes Aditya Prakash on vocals; Julian Le on piano and keyboards; Hitomi Oba on tenor saxophone; Mark Einhorn on alto saxophone; Jonah Levine on trombone; Shejith Krishna on vocal percussion; Shiva Ramamurthi on violin and vocals; Mashesh Swamy on flute, vocals and konnakol; Fabiano do Nascimento on guitar; Owen Clapp on bass; Jake Jamieson on drums and percussion; S. Ganapathi on tabla and mridangam; Ligaraju on mridangam and kanjira; and Adam Berg on keyboards and percussion.

Mara is a spectacular production, featuring exceptionally expressive Indian vocals and dazzling Carnatic and fusion jazz instrumental virtuosity.

Classical music fans in India would know Aditya Prakash as a Carnatic vocalist and a regular at Chennai’s classical music festival season in December. The singer is now changing gears and prepping for his new jazz fusion act, The Colliding Worlds Project.  The collective will make its debut in India with a series of gigs starting this week.

Prakash, who grew up in a Los Angeles and started training as a Hindustani classical vocalist when he was eight years old, toured with Pandit Ravi Shankar and his sitarist-daughter Anoushka Shankar at the age of 16. By the time he joined the University of California, Los Angeles [UCLA], Prakash had become more open to fusion music. The Aditya Prakash Ensemble started out in 2011 after Prakash began jamming with his jazz musician roommates at UCLA. Coming into the fusion space after being an classical musician all his life, the 27-year-old vocalist says he’s always been used to seeing elderly “uncles and aunties” at his concerts and expected the same at the first few Ensemble gigs in L.A., but they drew a young crowd of not just Indians, but also Americans. Says Prakash, “They were able to feel the bhaav of the raga-based songs. There was a level of comfort in the jazz element, they were able to appreciate it without being overwhelmed by the technicalities [of either genres].”

Joined by pianist Julian Le, saxophonist Hitomi Oba and drummer Jake Jamieson from the US and Bengaluru-based flautist Mahesh Swamy and Chennai-based percussionist Praveen Kumar, the ensemble’s debut six-city India tour takes place between September 22nd and October 11th as part of hotel chain The Park’s New Festival’s ninth edition. Interestingly, the American musicians in the collective met their Indian bandmates for the first time at rehearsals in Chennai a few days ago.  Adds Prakash, “There’s no nervousness, just excitement. I’m really excited about playing at Blue Frog in Mumbai, because I’ve heard a lot of great things about it.” To cover costs of the tour, the Ensemble’s hosts – Chennai-based cultural organization the Prakriti Foundation – are crowdfunding on Wishberry, with rewards ranging from gig invites to an on-stage note of thanks.

With a repertoire of 15 to 20 songs, The Colliding Worlds Project plan to tailor their sets differently based on the city they’re performing in. Says Prakash, “In Chennai, I know there are staunch traditionalists so we’ll do more Carnatic stuff, but in Mumbai, I know there’s a younger crowd so we’ll do a few Bollywood covers and take out all the sensitive, slow songs.”

The Colliding Worlds Project ft Aditya Prakash Ensemble India Tour

September 22nd – The Park Hotel, Chennai

September 25th – The Park Hotel, Hyderabad

October 2nd – The Park Hotel, Bengaluru

October 5th – The Park Hotel, Kolkata

October 7th – Blue Frog, Mumbai

October 11th – The Park Hotel, New Delhi

Aditya Prakash Ensemble combines two diverse genres — Carnatic and jazz

Marrying two traditions to see what comes of it is as risky as it is interesting. Especially when they both carry the weight of history — such as Carnatic music and jazz. With Aditya Prakash Ensemble, a young NRI Carnatic musician, who splits his time between India and the U.S., has successfully managed to bring the two forms together. Aditya Prakash, who studied Ethnomusicology at UCLA, took jazz lessons. That’s when the idea of a jugal bandhi of the two genres came up.

A mixed group

“The Ensemble is a mix of all my friends and classmates from college, and they all asked me join in during informal jazz sessions,” Aditya says. The group of 10 musicians has been performing for about three years now in the U.S., and officially as an Ensemble, for two years. “Sometimes we even perform as a group of four to six musicians,” Aditya Prakash explains.

The Ensemble feature vocals, two saxophones, one trombone, a piano, bass guitar, Latin percussions, Carnatic violin and a Brazilian folk guitar. “Sometimes we have a tabla too,” he adds. After a few gigs at spaces where other members of the band performed regularly, the Ensemble found recognition when it performed at the World Festival of Sacred Music.

“I listened to jazz only after joining college. It was hard for me to grasp it because the harmonic motions of jazz are intense and complicated. For us, in Carnatic music, the emphasis is on ‘bhava’. In a Carnatic composition, the sa remains constant but there are 10 different sa-s and ri-s in jazz and that’s a challenge I welcomed,” says Aditya, who enjoys the music of jazz legends such as Dave Brubeck. “The Ensemble is doing really well in the U.S., and I am happy with my concerts in India. But right now I feel as if I am leading a double life; I would like to strike a balance between the two. That’s what I am working on now,” he adds. Aditya has Carnatic concerts lined up in Coimbatore, Mumbai and Bengaluru over the next few weeks.

The Ensemble’s first album The Hidden sees Aditya explore the meanings of spiritual compositions by Meerabai, Gnaneshwar and others. Dancer Mythili Prakash (Aditya’s sister) and group will work on a theatrical production with The Hidden’s music. “We have one show in Hollywood and are working out the rest of the details,” he says. Of the others in his groups, Aditya adds, “They are all musicians and have their own groups with which they perform.”

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