Prana weaves a fusion spell

THE fusion music of Prana wove a spell that drew the audience to its feet at the end of the concert, writes AHMAD NAZRUL CAMALXAMAN



AFTER their debut concert in May at the Actors Studio Bangsar to a sell-out crowd, Prana - a fusion ensemble of Indian and Western musicians - was back once again by popular demand, this time at the Petaling Jaya Civic Centre Auditorium, last Saturday.

The concert, entitled Life Breath, comes from the Sanskrit translation of Prana and also happens to be the title of their first commercial album which was launched in June.

Prana, which blends Indian and Western instruments to create a charismatic fusion, opening up to a new genre for the local music scene, is headed by Samuel J. Dass on the sitar.

Dass's 30 years of playing locally and around the region places him as Malaysia's foremost sitar exponent. He has come out with seven albums, of varying genres and has played at numerous venues with appearances on national television and radio. Dass also wrote and composed all the songs in Life Breath.

Accompanying Dass are some of the best, the most creative, and, some say, mystical bunch of musicians ever assembled in one place, including the much-touted sessionist, producer and songwriter Jamie Wilson on the acoustic steel guitar and the most sought after secessionist in Malaysia, Fauzi Samin (a.k.a. Aji) on the acoustic nylon guitar.

In addition, there was Prakash Kandasamy on the tabla, who in 1999 recorded two albums with Ustad Usman Khan, the tabla maestro extraordinaire and S. Sivabalan on the mridhangam, ganjeera and ghadam, who, in 1992, was bestowed the title of Layaanjali by the Temple of Fine Arts in Kuala Lumpur.

Prana's music has caught ardent fusion, jazz and world music lovers by surprise and with accomplished names like these on the bill, the audience was in for a treat.

What Prana does is bring this rigid 5,000-year-old Indian classical music to something more fluid and imaginative.

The uniqueness of Prana is that it combines Indian ragaa - 64,848 ascending or descending scales providing thousands of combinations and bringing out emotions such as happiness, bewilderment, sorrow, spirituality and love - and fuse it with blues, rock, jazz, flamenco and funk to create resonance.

As the curtain was raised and all five of them were seated together at the middle of the stage washed with red lighting, they started off with their signature piece Prana Express.

It was simply magical as Dass started off the piece with a slow solo as Wilson and Aji intertwined the sitar echo with their soft guitar pluckings, warming up the audience, while Kandasamy and Sivabalan provided an ever-changing beat that in the end made the song faster and louder.

Most of the audience didn't quite know who to react as Dass and his band moulded the sounds and notes of their instruments into something they had never experienced before, but from their faces it was quite evident that they were captivated.

Next came Kampung Ku, a song inspired by Dass's memories of his childhood. If anyone ever wondered what a Malay song would sound like if it was played on the sitar, well this was it.

When Dass started on the piece, one could imagine that the song was something that the late P. Ramli would have written if he had a sitar handy because the similarity of Kampung Ku and Ramli's style of composition and writing is uncanny.

The unmistakable Malay feeling of the song was further imposed as both the guitarists joined in, taking the audience back to their own memories of their own childhood as Wilson added some classical Spanish guitar playing during the bridge while Aji finished off the song with a stupefying solo.

To end the first set was Vibration, a piece Dass wrote after climbing up 10 floors of his apartment in Brickfields.

The beginning of the second set saw Wilson and Aji dominating the stage with Brickfields Blues, composed by Wilson, which is a mixture of western and Malay blues that got the crowd clapping and cheering for them to play more. Some of them even stood up and danced in the narrow aisle.
Then it was time for Life Breath, which started of with Dass playing slow but gaining momentum as the song moved on. In came Aji and Jamie, contrasting Dass's classical Indian tune with a little bit of jazz and flamenco, creating a most unique blend of music, while the percussionist provided the backbone.

It was like listening to Ravi Shankar, Sting, Jesse Cook and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, each a master of his own genre, playing together at the same time.

About this time, 12-year-old percussionist prodigy Arthur Kam (See previous blog: Arthur... the Drummer Boy) walked on stage. Initially nervous, Arthur seemed to get over his anxiety of playing with some of the greatest masters while at the same time impressing the audience with his remarkable talent as the band played Damascus, another piece composed by Wilson.

The band was awarded a standing ovation as the crowd clapped and cheered and thanked them for a wonderfully magical night.

Prana brings new meaning to "bringing new life to ancient music". - NST 31/10/2004