Bengaluru-based slide guitarist Dr Prakash Sontakke has been performing with his project Vividha for over five years, with different combinations of musicians. He has now created a new set for his fusion concert at the Cube theatre of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre (NMACC) on March 15. Accompanying him and the Dr Prakash Sontakke Group (DPSG) for the first time as a guest is percussionist Shikhar Naad Qureshi.
The musician’s wife Chaitra Sontakke is on vocals, and the rest of the line-up comprises Charudatt Phadke on tabla and Subhash Deshpande on keyboards. Says the guitarist, “We will basically play contemporary Hindustani classical compositions but fuse them with jazz, blues and even country. There shall also be elements of folk music from the Dewas region of Madhya Pradesh, and a bit of Chattisgarh, which Chaitra will sing. Besides my older pieces like Kalyani Drive, I have added new material with lots of percussion keeping in mind Shikhar’s presence.”
The concept is in line with Sontakke’s views that fusion has a great role to play in attracting younger audiences towards classical music. On his earlier projects like the album Progressive Raga and his collaboration with Italian guitarist Eraldo Bernocchi on Invisible Strings, he has seamlessly blended Indian and western styles. He has also worked on composer Ricky Kej’s Grammy-winning albums Winds Of Samsara and Divine Tides, lending vocals and playing slide guitar on some songs and co-composing the track Mahatma.
Belonging to a family of Hindustani classical musicians, Sontakke grew up in Benaras. His father Dr R.B. Sontakke was a senior disciple of vocalist and musicologist Pt Omkarnath Thakur and his mother Dr Mani Sontakke learnt from vichitra veena maestro Lalmani Mishra. His parents were educators at the Benaras Hindu University (BHU). As a youngster, he sang, and played the violin and slide guitar, which he later adapted to his own style by changing the position of the sympathetic strings. “My love for slide guitar came from my mother, who played it,” he says.
Sontakke moved to Bengaluru after his 10th standard. “My parents did not want me to be a professional musician because of the hardships involved. I tried to pursue some engineering, but flopped and left it,” he recalls. Sontakke was lucky to get offers in film music in Bengaluru. That changed his outlook. He explains, “There were many songs with classical as a base. I realised that classical music could be played in ways other than it is in sabhas. At corporate shows or weddings, one will not listen to a raga for half an hour. That’s how I got drawn more towards fusion.”
Besides classical music and fusion group Shakti, Sontakke began following rock bands like Pink Floyd and The Grateful Dead. He says, “When I heard Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon, I realised that the same instrument – the slide guitar – can be played in different ways in different genres.” His passion for experimentation also led him to play different types of slide guitars. Besides the classical slide guitar which he adapted, he plays a lap steel built by Bill Asher of California, a customised tear-drop Weissenborn by Asher and a dobro resonator made by PaulBeard Goldtone. He has also developed what he called the Banjowaiian. He says, “It’s basically a banjo converted into a Hawaiian guitar. From far, it sounds like a sarod but it’s actually different.”
Of his recordings, the 2016 release Progressive Raga came under the DPSG name, but had a different line-up consisting of percussionist Karthik Mani, keyboardist Shadrach Solomon and bassist Kedar Nayak. The album has popular tracks like Kalyani Drive, Gandhi Bazaar Buzz and Surfing The Bangalore Skies At Rudrapada. Sontakke points out that working with Ricky Kej on two albums was a wonderful experience, as he gave musicians the freedom to express and execute their ideas. Another tie-up he loves talking about is the track Funktarang in composer-keyboardist Indrajit Sharma aka Tubby’s album Pitara. He says, “Because of his compositional skills, Tubby imagines A to Z of every song. He gave this a nice grunge and funk sound, and I loved the result.” The track also features bassist Sheldon D’Silva and drummer Gino Banks.
Next up is the album Urban Raga with Chaitra on vocals. He says, “It will have a lot of Hindustani vocals, but also some western vocals. The basic idea is to show how the raga can be used in different forms of music. The compositions will be short and structured in way that they attract the younger listeners.” Whether it is his Vividha concerts or his recordings, Sontakke is clear about his priorities.
