" Prakash Shetty.....
When you hear this name what comes thick and fast to your mind is a
South Indian restaurant owner hurriedly counting his 100, 500 rupee
hard notes while speedily exchanging the loose change from his galla in the
station roads of Mumbai. Some of us may even think of the cartoonist
illustrator namesake from the Kannada publications, But, this "Prakash Shetty",
whom the world largely ignored lived uniquely different from the rest, as
what mattered to him the most was eliminating the 'hard notes' that wouldn't
count while playing a non-restrained free flow jazz solo- one that made an
everlasting melodious expression on his piano. Prakash, was one of the finest
jazz pianists from Mumbai, India and an exceptional sound engineer .
On top of it was his never ending fascination for high end world class synthesizers,
and, to my mind he had the best collection of analog synthesizers in Asia.
With deep sadness I extend my tribute to this genius who passed away
on 25th june 2010 fighting Parkinson and a heart condition.
{ He also owned a famous A grade eatery at fort- " Ankur Restaurant ";
a rare specialty, the restaurant served drinks only with vegetarian food in the 90's}
Prakash is best remembered for his jazz fusion / new age crescendo release album:-" Hard notes loose change ", though quite unheard off in the mainstream industry, It offered a touch glimpse of his virtuoso in aural designing with elements of fusion.
Jazz Harmonic Voicings was Prakash's greatest strength and the amazing depth
of content clubbed with an unmatched understanding of the mechanics of
sound took him to the highest level in sound production. and, equally
stunning was his top notch studio, ' Sound Company ' at Fort which was
an Analog haven for turning any sonic dreams into infinite layers of
sound scape possibilities.
I first met Prakash at his studio, " Sound Company" , during early 90's
while attempting to record our first album. My songwriter friend, Anant Joshi
had managed an opportunity through a music company and the company
had kept a month's booking for us at Prakash's state of art studio, but ,
he was introduced to us as our sound mixing engineer. When we stepped in
to get a sneak peek into his studio we were bowled-over at the display of
equipments offered :- a live kurzweil sampler, a Rhodes electric piano,
Prophet analog synth, MiniMoog Arp analog synthesizer, 1-inch analog spool recorder !!!
sound editing on to computers when pro-tools was not even built in the production line...
The first day of our recording, our keyboard player was struggling to mute
a noisy patch from his Roland w-30 and Prakash had sternly refused to
record the sound until we got rid of the glitch, Infact, he had stepped out
calling for a smoke break.. screaming, "give me a clean sound, guys....."
He used high end gears and gold plated cables to cut on circuitry noise..
I had no previous knowledge of sound recording then and synthesizers
were mere alien flashy instruments that created delightful lushful sounds,
nothing more..!!! like the share brokers fluctuating pulses at the nearby
wall street, the situation got worse as the clock ticked fast and all my
excitement of quickly recording the first song had evaporated and the day
got almost wasted with not even a single take printed on to the tape...
late in the evening just when we ran short of patience and ideas,
Prakash walked in like a messiah and ordered the keyboardist to step aside,
with a witty sparkling smile he fidgeted with the same buttons and .. phew!
there it was... we were hearing the majestic rootless parallel moving voicings
from his left hand and an unusual improvised funky whole tone magic
phrase from his visceral right hand... I was too impressed and from then
on my first lessons in recording and jazz improvisations had begun ,
soon.. a three year long association followed as I joined him as an
apprentice to learn trades of recording, and, later collaborated with
him in the making of " hard notes loose change" by doing the Indian
classical music structuring and the percussion parts,
several top grade musicians , flautist Milind Sheorey, sarodia Pradeep Barot,
guitarists Amit roy, Derek Julian,Violinist milind raikar, young tabla player
Satyajit Talwalkar , french gypsy guitarist Marco Salaun, classical singer
Geeta javdekar, veena player Narayan Mani and several other artists of repute
had spent hours together coming out of their traditional systems playing
high energy solos outside the parent scale to achieve that aural magical piece
of excellence, not that his music forced us thinking on scales or modes only,
It had a profound structure too like his imposing personality and left a lasting impression...
prakash was very moody, intimidating and wildly erratic at times......
He never compromised on quality and had an eagle eye, wouldn't let anyone
step into the studio... even if it meant loss of business or hurting a
close friend of your's... He called his space the sanctum of sound.
His music though was largely influenced by the legendary Miles Davis,
Bill Evans, Herbie Hancock , Jean luc Ponty.. but, he always desired to
call himself a jazz rock\new age pianist, one who desperately
seeked new directions. The "interlude' in side A of the album is a
master piece, ''parallel bars" 'and 'parallax" is insightful and very well
thought out, a must hear. sadly , not much of his works were allowed
to be released by producers, music labels, as he didn't bend to their
commercial flimsy tunes.
He was also associated in the music scoring and sound-designing
of the popular children's audio book series " Karadi Tales "
During my formative years he was a big support and encouragement,
He taught me to keep an open mind and open ears while recording music ,
and , to me he also appeared as the foremost computer expert on music
I will cherish his music and the times we spend together at 'sound company'
will stay forever in my memory, and last, but far from least, I would take this
opportunity to thank him as he showed me the right path,
while , I had a 'sound company" in him...
I m sure he is in sound company too..
May God bless his soul!
- ved nair
R I P N LOADS OF JAZZ:- Anant Joshi
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