The only musician from Karanataka playing the Slide Guitar and the only one to have won the Independent World Music Awards, USA and theNashville Award for composers where his composition was chosen over the maestro Illayaraja. An A grade artiste from Akashvani and Doordarshan Prakash has toured extensively with his troupes namely ”The Prakash Sontakke Group” (Neo Classical Fusion), International Trio“Lehera” (World Fusion ), “Moonarra” (Jazz and Classical fusion ) , “New Life” on the lines of Sufi World Fusion with Ace Drummer and Percussionist Sivamani and noted Sufi Vocalist Runa Rizvi. “FOOD”(progressive Electronic Jazz crossover) where he performs with British Saxophone Maestro Iain Ballamy and the phenomenal Norwegian Drummer Thomas Stronen.More recently with the FIGURA ENSEMBLEfrom Denmark where he performs with a Mezzo-soprano, three musicians, a composer, a poet and an architect, FIGURA Ensemble is a musical collective with a mind of its own.
Prakash features in the fusion album “THUNDER” with Narada Michael Walden: Drums, Keys, Vocals, Synth-Bass, Percussion, Glockenspiel; Bass; Angeline Saris: Bass; Matthew Charles Heulitt: Guitar; Frank Martin: Keys; Nikita Germaine: Background Vocals, Vocals; Joel Angelo Margolis: Keyboards & Percussion; Jim Reitzel: Bass, Synth-Bass, Guitar, Keys, Percussion, Organ; Troy Lampkins: Bass; Katie Mersereau: Bells; Amit Datta: Guitar.”THUNDER” has been produced by Narada Michael Walden an American producer, drummer,singer, and songwriter ( JOHN MCLAUGHLIN , JEFF BECK , DIANA ROSS , ARETHA FRANKLIN , MARIAH CAREY , SISTER SLEDGE )who has been awarded several gold, platinum and multi-platinum awards. Walden has also owned and operated Tarpan Studios, a well-known recording studio in San Rafael, California, since the mid-1980s.
PRAKASH SONTAKKE – GERARD MACHADO – kalyani blues
Lineage and Gharana Prakash Sontakke belongs to the illustrious Gwalior Gharana . His father Dr RB Sontakke is one of the senior most disciples ofPt Omkarnath Thakur and his mother Dr Mani Sontakke is the disciple of Pt Lalmani Mishra. Both Dr R B Sontakke and Dr Mani Sontakke were Educators in Benaras Hindu University for well over 40 years. Dr R B Sontakke and Dr Mani Sontakke established the Hindustani Sangeet Vidyapeeth in Bangalore where they have coached hundreds of students who are also busy performers in the field.
Ehsaan and Loy Coke Studio Feat Benny Dayal and Prakash Sontakke
Prakash with Shivamani for Titan Fast Track
“Wild chase”, a composition by Prakash.
Prakash Sontakke composition Wild Chase
Mentor and Consultant at Octavium Academy of Music.
NAMM Breakfast of Champions Concert Prakash Sontakke and Salar Nader
NAMM 2012 Breakfast of Champions Day 1 Concert: Prakash Sontakke – Slide Guitar and Salar Nader – Tabla Drums, brought to you by Abe Thomas and camera by Jon Hammond of HammondCast *Note: Prakash just emailed me that the name of this song is: “Kalyani”
He is the recipient of the prestigious Aryabhatta Award, Ganayogi Panchakshari Gawai Award & Dr Puttaraj Gawai award.Haveri Award by Vinayak Seva Samiti.
His creative explorations in Jazz and world music are deeply underlined by his classical training. He has performed his guitar for Several commercial cinemas in Hindi ,Kannada ,Malayalam ,Tamil , Bengali ,Punjabi Urdu, English including some European Theatre .
Prakash Sontakke with Fazal Qureshi, CN Chandrashekhar and TAS Mani
Ehsaan and Loy Coke Studio Feat Divya Kumar mahalkshmi Iyer and Prakash Sontakke Slide Guitar
Mindslide
Prakash Sontakke has featured in the Coke Studio Season 2 @ Mtv with the rocking directors of Bollywood Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa .
Open Skies
Friday, December 30th, 2011