CURATION
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from this page:
by Matrix
The Integrated Global Creative Economy
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Name:
Aditya Prakash
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City/Place:
Los Angeles, California
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Country:
United States
Current News
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What's Up?
He’s always had a powerful voice and it’s beautiful to see his creative voice find the same power.
- Anoushka Shankar
Life
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Bio:
Aditya Prakash, an award-winning vocalist known for his powerful and emotive voice, is one of the foremost young virtuosos of Carnatic music, the traditional classical style of South India.
A Los Angeles native from a family richly immersed in South Indian arts and culture, Aditya’s intensive musical studies began in childhood. At only 16 years of age, he became one of the youngest musicians ever to tour and perform with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar, accompanying him to such prestigious stages as Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Concert Hall.
Today Aditya continues to collaborate with leading innovators and artists, including Anoushka Shankar (he was featured on her Grammy-nominated Traveler); Armenian pianist Tigran Hamasyan (working together on a new album planned for release in 2021); Asian Underground artist Karsh Kale, and most recently the acclaimed dancer and choreographer Akram Khan (in his final solo work, XENOS, touring internationally from 2018-2021).
More
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Quotes, Notes & Etc.
“Aditya has been very dear to me since we first toured together, first as part of my father Ravi Shankar’s ensemble and then when he joined my own band in support of my album Rise. He was just a teenager then but already had that mighty voice, which has been honed by maturity, exploration and dedication to the beautiful depth evident today on his new album Diaspora Kid. I recognize in Aditya the search of a second-generation member of the diaspora: the desire to make art that truly reflects the mixes and contradictions, the conflicts and confluences of our lives. He’s always had a powerful voice and it’s beautiful to see his creative voice find the same power.”
-Anoushka Shankar
“Gifted with a strong, powerful voice, and good pitch alignment…Aditya has a bright future in music.”
- Ravi Shankar
“Aditya Prakash is a visionary artist that has found a way to speak to everyone while speaking in his own language. His new album “Diaspora Kid” is extraordinary. I am looking forward to seeing what comes next out of this artist”
- Tigran Hamasyan
“Aditya represents a new generation of musician. He has studied his traditional craft extensively but is not afraid to take that language and art form into uncharted territories.”
- Karsh Kale
“The remarkable Carnatic singer’s music reflected a pure heart and exploratory spirit, and also impressed me with its musical ambition. The group recently released its third album Diaspora Kid, which just blew me away. In today’s crowded musical landscape, records like this do not come every day. Los Angeles is blessed to have a group like this in our midst. “
-Tom Schnabel- KCRW
“…a superb, masterful album…Aditya Prakash is a remarkable vocalist.”
-Angel Romero
“…my mind was blown…performed with a passion that is just about non-existent in today’s pop world. “Diaspora Kid” is a desperately needed jolt of true emotion and depth.”
-Sal Nunziato
“Richly complex Indian melodies and long, mind-blowingly complicated rhythmic patterns wind their way through jazz and rock arrangements, without either tradition ever feeling at all diluted or compromised…it’s a unique musical and cultural emulsion that attains the elusive goal of drawing the best from every source it touches. And none of this is even to talk about Prakash’s voice, which is quite simply a wonder of nature: rich, powerful, clear, and seemingly without technical limitations. An astounding album that portends a wildly successful career.”
-CD Hot List
Clips (more may be added)
When creators curate people (and entities) for what they do and where they do it, a matrix is generated.
Following human society, by the mathematical magic of the small-world phenomenon, all inside such a matrix tend to within degrees of all others inside.
And by logical extension, to within degrees of all humanity.
It is almost completely unknown that the Recôncavo of Bahia was final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other place throughout the entirety of mankind’s existence on this planet.
And widely unknown that Brazil — a repository of African deities now largely forgotten in their lands of origin — absorbed over ten times the number of Africans taken to the United States of America.
And unknown that Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil’s national music — the pandeiro — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil’s culturally fecund nordeste/northeast (where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa — Lagoon of the Canoe — and raised in Olho d’Águia — Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil’s aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
Three cultures — from three continents — running for their lives, their confluence forming an unprecedented fourth.
This matrix began here and opens pathways from everywhere to everywhere.
Recently accessed from:

"Thanks, this is a brilliant idea!!"
—Alicia Svigals (NEW YORK CITY): Apotheosis of klezmer violinists
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers (BOSTON): Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory ... Former personal recording engineer for Prince; "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"
"Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched!"
—Julian Lloyd Webber (LONDON): Premier cellist in UK; brother of Andrew (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats, Phantom of the Opera...)
"This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :)))"
—Clarice Assad (RIO DE JANEIRO/CHICAGO): Pianist and composer with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world
"We appreciate you including Kamasi in the matrix, Sparrow."
—Banch Abegaze (LOS ANGELES): manager, Kamasi Washington
"Thanks! It looks great!....I didn't write 'Cantaloupe Island' though...Herbie Hancock did! Great Page though, well done! best, Randy"
"Very nice! Thank you for this. Warmest regards and wishing much success for the project! Matt"
—Son of Jimmy Garrison (bass for John Coltrane, Bill Evans...); plays with Herbie Hancock and other greats...
Ground Zero for the project was the culture born in Brazil's quilombos (in Angola a kilombo is a village; in Brazil it is a village either founded by Africans or Afro-Brazilians who had escaped slavery, or — as in the case of São Francisco do Paraguaçu below — occupied by such after abandonment by the ruling class):

...theme for a Brazilian Matrix, from an Afro-Brazilian Mass by
Milton Nascimento
I opened the shop in Salvador, Bahia in 2005 in order to create an outlet to the wider world for magnificent Brazilian musicians.
David Dye & Kim Junod for NPR found us (above), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (he's a huge jazz fan), David Byrne, Oscar Castro-Neves... Spike Lee walked past the place while I was sitting on the stoop across the street drinking beer and listening to samba from the speaker in the window...
But we weren't exactly easy for the world-at-large to get to. So in order to extend the place's ethos I transformed the site associated with it into a network wherein Brazilian musicians I knew would recommend other Brazilian musicians, who would recommend others...
And as I anticipated, the chalky hand of God-as-mathematician intervened: In human society — per the small-world phenomenon — most of the billions of us on earth are within some 6 or fewer degrees of each other. Likewise, within a network of interlinked artists as I've described above, most of these artists will in the same manner be at most a handful of steps away from each other.
So then, all that's necessary to put the Brazilians within possible purview of the wide wide world is to include them among a wide wide range of artists around that world.
If, for example, Quincy Jones is inside the matrix, then anybody on his page — whether they be accessing from a campus in L.A., a pub in Dublin, a shebeen in Cape Town, a tent in Mongolia — will be close, transitable steps away from Raymundo Sodré, even if they know nothing of Brazil and are unaware that Sodré sings/dances upon this planet. Sodré, having been knocked from the perch of fame and ground into anonymity by Brazil's dictatorship, has now the alternative of access to the world-at-large via recourse to the vast potential of network theory.
...to the degree that other artists et al — writers, researchers, filmmakers, painters, choreographers...everywhere — do also. Artificial intelligence not required. Real intelligence, yes.
Years ago in NYC (I've lived here in Brazil for 32 years now) I "rescued" unpaid royalties (performance & mechanical) for artists/composers including Barbra Streisand, Aretha Franklin, Mongo Santamaria, Jim Hall, Clement "Coxsone" Dodd (for his rights in Bob Marley compositions; Clement was Bob's first producer), Led Zeppelin, Ray Barretto, Philip Glass and many others. Aretha called me out of the blue vis-à-vis money owed by Atlantic Records. Allen Klein (managed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Ray Charles) called about money due the estate of Sam Cooke. Jerry Ragovoy (Time Is On My Side, Piece of My Heart) called just to see if he had any unpaid money floating around out there (the royalty world was a shark-filled jungle, to mangle metaphors, and I doubt it's changed).
But the pertinent client (and friend) in the present context is Earl "Speedo" Carroll, of The Cadillacs. Earl went from doo-wopping on Harlem streetcorners to chart-topping success to working as a custodian at PS 87 elementary school on the west side of Manhattan. Through all of this he never lost what made him great.
Greatness and fame are too often conflated. The former should be accessible independently of the latter.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay (they paid).
Matrix founding creators are behind "one of 10 of the best (radios) around the world", per The Guardian.
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