Guitar and Gayaki

NDTV Interview of LEHERA winning the IMA award

2009-06-03T17:04:00.001-07:00

Jugalbandi of Vid Mysore Nagraj and Prakash Sontakke

2009-04-06T03:20:00.000-07:00

The Great Indian slide story

2009-03-02T21:14:00.000-08:00

One can say the "The Indian slide guitar" has gone through a long and interesting journey .Long enough to write books or maybe but short enough to even go unnoticed .

The Saga

The first few instances of Slide guitar being heard in Indian music was early 4os when it was used predominently in film scores in the great Bollywood . It can be heard very clearly in the movie "MAHAL" starring the debonair Ashok Kumar and one of the most beautiful starlet to have hit the screen MADHUBALA .
Let me point out that the Indian music scenario was ,is and will always be ruled by the Vocal faculty that is the Singer . In Indian Film background scores have rarely made any meaning to the listeners . Countinuing on what I said the slide guitar could be heard very clearly in the movie cause the movie had a haunting background score .The mood was suspense , melancholic and somewhat dark . In all these desriptions the Slide guiatr fitted very well .

As time passed it was once again used rather liberally by none other than SD Burman in his combination with the enigmatic GURUDATT in most of his productions especially PYASA

Dr Suma Sudhindra and Prakash Sontakke

2008-12-31T00:10:00.000-08:00

Prakash Sontakke and Dr Suma Sudhindra at the Gokhale institute of Public affairs .A unique jugalbandis of 2 artistes who are very contemporary in their approach.

The Raagas were Hamsadhwani, Hamsanadi, Charukeshi and Krishna Nee Begani Baro

Open Skies

2008-10-02T00:51:00.000-07:00

An ode to the environs ?

Will our children have these beautiful skies when they grow up ?

With Maestros and freinds

2008-09-07T20:21:00.000-07:00

With Kartick Mani at Radio
City Interview

With Balkan Guitarist Nemanya,

With Elen Mclweine , Cassius Khan and International trio Lehera

With Pt Ravindra Yavagal

With Vidwan TAS Mani

"the traveller has to knock at every alien door to come to his own" - Tagore

Swar Veena First official recording at the Dattatreya Temple Bangalore

2008-09-07T11:29:00.000-07:00

The Swar Veena recording with the Ensemble where 3 Tablas, A Ghatam and a Morsing supported by the Talas .Accompanying melodic instruments like the Keboard for ambience and the Jalatarang add to the flavour of this Group popularly known as NADA.

My Invention the Swar Veena

2008-09-06T22:05:00.000-07:00

The Swar Veena
C & P prakashsontakke
A combination of the Swar Mandal and the Vichitra Veena on the Indian style and it also produces sounds closer to the Dulcimer , Resophonic Guitars and the Dobros and the King of all the Lap Steel .I have been greatly inspired by musicians like Guitarist Jeff Beck , Bob Brozman ,Joe Wright , Ben Harper , Stacy Phillips and off course Pt Vishamohan Bhatt and Pt Debashish Bhattacharya

2007-11-12T22:23:00.000-08:00

PRAKASH SONTAKKE WITH VIDUSHI PUSHPA KASHINATH AT THE FAMOUS ISKCON TEMPLE BANGALORE
A JUGAL BANDI OF KARNATICK MUSIC AND HINDUSTANI ACCOMPANIED BY TABLA , MRIDANGAM, GHATAM AND KEYBOARD

2007-11-12T22:19:00.000-08:00

PRAKASH SONTAKKE WITH KARTICK MANI GROUP

2007-10-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

PRAKASH SONTAKKE WITH HIS UNUSUAL GUITAR AND WITH CHAITRA SONTAKKE WHO IS A HINDUSTANI VOCALIST .SHE PERFORMS HINDUSTANI CLASSICAL ,BHAJAN ,ABHANG AND DEVARNAMAS

PRAKASH SONTAKKE RYTHM & WORLD ENSEMBLE

2007-10-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

"MANGAL DHWANI"

HINDUSTANI & CARNATIC RYTHM ENSEMBLE WITH WORLD SOUNDS

A TEAM OF LEADING PROFFESIONAL MUSICIANS HEADED BY PRAKASH SONTAKKE WHICH INCLUDE

MRIDANGAM- VID DHRUVRAJ,FLUTE- VID JAYARAM,MORSING- VID RAJSHEKHAR,VIOLIN- VID ANANT SATYA

KHANJIRA - VID AMRIT ,GHATAM- VID RAMESH,JALATARANG- SHRUTHI,

TABLA - UDAYARAJ KARAPUR & ADARSH SHENOY,DRUMS-KARTICK

THIS TEAM PERFORMS BOTH CLASSICAL AS WELL AS FUSION STYLES FOR SABHAS AS WELL AS CORPORATE

Complete profile

2007-09-06T00:24:00.000-07:00

Bachelor of Arts
Masters of Music Vocal
Masters of Music Guitar
Masters of Music Violin
One of the very few Hindustani Classical musicians in India specializing in Classical Slide Guitar apart from Violin and Vocal.

The son and disciple of Dr. R.B. Sontakke and Dr Smt Mani Sontakke. Dr RB Sontakke is one of the Doyen of Gwalior Gharana and a direct disciple of the Legendary Maestro Sangeeth Martand Pt. Omkarnath Thakur.His mother
Dr Smt Mani Sontakke apart from her Doctorate in Music has a master’s degree in several instruments and has taught him the Hawaiian Guitar.

He has a Masters Degree of Music in the Guitar, Violin and Vocal and an All India Radio approved artist for Violin and Guitar.
On the classical Hawaiian guitar he plays the Gayaki ang, which is a tough style as it is a complete reproduction of Vocal music and is a very tough style to play on stroke instruments. Keeping this in mind he has done a few modifications to the guitar which enables him to play Gayaki.
As we all know Pt. Omkarnath Thakur has inspired a whole new generation of musicians cause he was one of the few who redefined the entire concept of Bhavana Poorna Gayaki his concerts were marked by a very strong emotional content as well as a great emphasis on different moods. Prakash has been constantly trying to achieve that particular style in Instrumental music especially stroke instruments i.e Classical Guitar.

Gharana
He was deeply and naturally inspired by the singing of Pandit Omkarnath Thakur and since his father is a disciple of Pandit Omkarnath Thakur he has been able to capture the essence of that Vocal style which highlights the Gwalior Gharana. Apart from Pt Omkarnath Thakur he has been greatly inspired by the singing of Pt Kumar Gandharva, Pt Mallikarjun Mansur,
Pt Basavaraj Rajguru, Khan Saheb Amir Khan, Pt Vasant Rao Deshpande, Pt Jitendra Abhisheki.

Concerts
Performed in all major concert circuits of India Europe and USA namely,
Kala Niketan Calcutta, Delhi, Bhopal, Pune, Vasanthrao Deshpande Smriti Sammelan Nagpur, Sawai Gandharva Sammelan Kundgol, Veereswara Punyashram Gadag, Raichur, Saptak Kanpur, Sankatmochan Varanasi etc to name a few.
He frequently tours and perform in all major concert circuits of Europe and USA and Canada especially the beautiful British Columbia .

His National Program concert of Classical Guitar was broadcast through the All India Radio on the
22nd June 1998.
Scholarship
He was awarded the scholarship from the Ministry of HRD, Department of Culture in the academic session
1994-1996 in the subject Violin.

Academic Qualification

He has a Masters Degree in Classical Guitar, Vocal and Violin, attained from the INDIRA KALA SANGEETH VISHWAVIDYALAYA, Khairagarh apart from this he has done his BA from the Mysore University after dabbling with Engineering for 3 years

Creative Works

Apart from classical music he has done various Jugalbandi, s and fusion concerts, the highlighting aspect of these creative experimentations has been the focus on the vastness and versatility of classical music. Experimented with Indian classical music for stress relief and meditation as an experiment to prove the soothing effect of classical music. As per the Hindustani Classical music tradition Raagas have great effect on the state of mind.
Cassette’s and CDs
He has released and worked in several classical as well as Fusion projects, which have met with tremendous market sales.
Apart from stress relief and meditation projects, directed several devotional music projects, Laserbeam Presentations, Animation films, Dramas, Radio features, documentary, serials and documentaries.

2 feature films in Kannada namely Shadayantra and Devaragudda he also plays for all top music directors of India.

Musical Albums

1. Inward Quest – A solo Hawaiian guitar CD which was released in Europe and has won critical acclaim at various international forums.

2. Moments of Melody- A jugalbandi of Hawaiian Guitar and Flute.

3. Mangaldhwani- A trio of Hawaiian Guitar, Santoor and
Flute.

4. VIPPASANA 1 & 2– A 2 CD set of jugalbandi of Hawaiian Electric guitar and Bansuri.

5. Thandava- A fusion album of the band “Layatharanga” based on the Fusion of Karnatic Music, Western music and Hindustani Classical Music.

6. Om – A fusion album of the band “ Layataranga”based on Carnatic Classical Taalas, Hindustani Instrumental and Western Orchestration

7. Search- A world music album based on the meditative powers of Hindustani Classical Music and the Healing powers of Ragas.Made for Swami Paramhansa Yogananda Ashram New York .

8. Instrumental Divine- A Instrumental music album featuring Bhajans played on various instruments for the
“ART OF LIVING”.

9. Sath- Sath- An Instrumental fusion of Hawaiian Guitar,
Mandolin and Pianos adapted for Kathak Choreography.

10. Sai Bhajans on Instruments –This a album featuring Hawaiian Guitar and several instruments performing the Bhajans in the praise of the Lord Sri Sri Sri Sathya Sai Baba.

11.LEHERA – An Indo Canadian international trio comprising Prakash Sontakke , Kartick Mani and Prashant Michael John they just finished a tour of British Coumbia and various international forums.

12. Kamasutra Lounge Collective – Recently released by Universal Music USA has one track completely performed and composed by Prakash where the other musicians are Shivakumar Sharma, Ustad Sultan Khan, Hariharan and Shanker Mahadevan

13. Dhund – A hindi Pop album sung by Sriram Iyer and composed ,written and Scored by Prakash

14. Raghu Dixit Album– Where Prakash features on the track Ambar

15. Ricky Kej – A long working relation with Ricky kej with whom Prakash has done hundreds of Jingles and featured on several international albums and background score of the Kannada movie “ACCIDENT” starring Ramesh Aravind

16. BSNL HUTCH AIRTEL IDEA – For them Prakash has composed several ring back tones which have topped the download charts especially Malhar

Awards
The Arya Bhatta award for young performers Bangalore
Dr Panchakshari Gawai award Gadag
Dr Puttaraja Award Gulbarga

Presently busy with an album of Devotional songs on the Hawaiian Guitar for the first time Kannada Devotional songs performed on the Double Electric Hawaiian Guitar

Having performed with many international musicians on various international projects he feels that horizons are broadening and the importance of going deeper into ones own tradition has a never-ending appeal.

“To be able to do fusion better ones own traditional grounding should be strong”
Workshops and Presentations
He has given several Lectures on “Guitar and Gayaki”, “History of Indian classical music”, “Role of Classical slide guitar in the present context of Classical music”. “Music in the Vedic times and the main difference between Modern Indian Classical music and the Pracheen Sangeeth (Traditional) music”. “Aprachalit Raagas” (uncommonRaagas) and there usage in light music”. “Raga Aur Ras” are some of the few topics on which he has given lectures and presentations .He has organized several workshops for Appreciation of Classical music.
He also head “Aspirations” a team of artistes who give small concerts and demonstrations in various schools and colleges for the promotion and appreciation of Indian Classical Music.
INNOVATIONS
Include the Swar Veena , Alaapini, Samvadini
Feedback26610055fax-26676737/9448357975
E-mail: prakashsontakke@gmail.com,

slide show

2007-08-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

guitar and gayaki

2007-07-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

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