East Facing

Prasant Radhakrishnan

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 4, 2007)
• Original Release Date: June 14, 2007
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Lotus Music
• ASIN: B000SH3VQA
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #496,857 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Review
When it comes to specific musical instruments it's definitely tough for us to be won over by the sax. It's an instrument that all too often employed by those who have no business using it (think Kenny G, bad '80s pop rock, etc.) It's questionable use has made it so that even in respected jazz we almost cringe at its use unless its by one of the very few sax masters. So we knew immediately that this record by Carnatic player Prasant Radhakrishnan was something very special when it began with the sounds of a gorgeous alto sax. Part of it was the fact that the sax was being played in a way we had never really heard the instrument used before. Radhakrishnan's ability to bring together the disciplines of Classical South Indian music with Jazz is something he does grace and style. Equally influenced by John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins as much as D.K. Jayaraman and his guru Kadri Gopalnath, Radhakrishnan essentially uses the Sax to play ragas while his group adds violin and traditional Carnatic percussion to round out the sound. --Aquarius Records

Product Description
Accompanied by established veterans B.U. Ganeshprasad (violin), P. Satishkumar (mridungam), V. Suresh (ghatam) and B. Rajashekar (morsing), Radhakrishnan continues to hone his distinct style of bringing Carnatic music to the saxophone by emphasizing the vocal quality of the instrument while still bringing out the saxophone's unique strengths. East Facing is Radhakrishnan's most powerful, yet direct and balanced record to date. He presents a weighty, classic composition often reserved for vocalists in Kshinamai (raga Mukhari, tracks 4 and 5), while also composing a brisk pallavi in the unconventional Misrachapu thalam (7 beat cycle, track 8). Among the six contrasting compositions on the disc, there is no repetition of raga (melod), tala (rhythmic cycle) or composer.