Overall, Prasanna shines as a significant composer, awash with memorable melodies, funk, jazz-fusion and contemporary jazz stylizations. The real treat here, resides within his ability to make personalized statements during these cross-genre works that often sound natural, unhurried and thoughtful. These pieces feature the guitarist’s modulating fretwork, ferocious crunch chords and his penchant for executing tricky time changes amid a profusion of scrupulously fashioned grooves. He integrates East Indian modalities into his line of attack, as some of these compositions are topped off with melodic chord voicings, memorable hooks, and vocals. On the delightful piece titled "Satyam", Prassana vocalizes the melody subsequent to female vocalist Shalini’s Indian Diva type chants. Essentially, this is a radio-friendly piece, consisting of jazz-rock motifs and Andy Suzuki’s affable sax lines, where he restates the primary theme after each verse. In addition there are a few dazzling workouts mingled throughout the entire mix. Overall, the guitarist offers his musical associates ample soloing space. Prasanna even explores Latin grooves along with Humphrey’s brisk drumming on the high-octane track titled "Uncensored".

In sum, it’s not often that we listen to musicians/bands that present dazzling chops in concert with a structured and divergent production all equating to a high fun-factor. Prasanna has made his mark, now it’s up to the willing listener to seek out and listen to this superb effort. (Zealously recommended)

Prasanna already has a solid reputation for introducing the electric guitar to the world of traditional Carnatic music with a series of exceptional releases including the stunningly beautiful Natabhairavi. Like fellow countryman U. Srinivas, who experiments with that form as a member of John McLaughlin’s ground-breaking Remember Shakti, Prasanna has a clear understanding of the roots of this ancient Indian style. But what sets Prasanna apart from Srinivas who, with his fretless mandolin executes the wide note bends that are inherent in the style, Prasanna does the same thing with an unmodified guitar. The control that is required to do this on a fretted instrument is impressive, and Prasanna extends that level of control to the many other styles of music he tackles.

A Magna-Cum-Laude graduate of the Berklee School of Music, recipient of their Composition Achievement Award for outstanding work as a classical composer, and the Guitar Achievement Award for outstanding work as a jazz guitarist, Prasanna is clearly an artist with a broad understanding and even deeper ability to interpret. With Be the Change he demonstrates some of this stylistic breadth.

Opening with the Zawinul-esque "Pangea Rising", the tune alternates between an African Highlife feel and a more straight-ahead fusion feel, varying the texture even further by contributing an acoustic guitar solo that blends Carnatic style with a more Western approach. On "Ta ka ta ki ta Blues", Prasanna, again, deftly explores the juncture between East and West, this time with a burning electric solo; Like the first track, Prasanna demonstrates a stylistic disposition for shifting feels, this time alternating between greasy funk and a taste of swing. Such shifts can sometimes be jarring, but in the hands of Prasanna they all make perfect sense. Other tracks, including the closing "Kalyani Connection", are more relaxed, with a lightly funky groove that features fine acoustic solos from Prasanna and pianist Suzuki.

Prasanna has chosen two different working groups for this CD. Half the tunes are with bassist Victor Wooten and reed multi-instrumentalist Jeff Coffin, both from Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, and drummer Derico Watson; the other half feature bassist Alphonso Johnson, drummer Ralph Humphries and reed multi-instrumentalist/pianist Andy Suzuki. The Wooten/Watson rhythm section is a little more assertive, with Wooten’s signature fat sound driving the tunes he is on more vigorously; it is, however, great to hear Alphonso Johnson again; he demonstrates the same nimble style and bouncing funk that made him such a valued member of Weather Report in the 1970s.

But while the rhythm sections help to define the overall sound this is clearly Prasanna’s show. Building layers of electric and acoustic guitars, with a solid understanding of a multitude of styles he creates world music with a distinctive sound. Much like Pat Metheny, who merges the folk music of his Midwestern-US upbringing with a stronger jazz sensibility, Prasanna does similar things with his native South Indian roots. Also, like Metheny, Prasanna is less interested in songs where the theme is simply a way to get into improvisation; his pieces have a stronger sense of composition, each one telling a story. Be the Change is a fine new release from an artist who truly understands the concept that fusion, rather than being the dirty word it has become, is truly about integrating seemingly disparate styles of music into a new whole.

Right off, "Pangaea Rising" metaphorically merges and recalls the supercontinent of world-fusion, if you will, with emerging subsections akin to its separating subcontinents. Rock riffs subsume fluttering sax, counting down the launch into Prasanna’s instantly acoustic solo, rife with flawlessly executed, far-eastern inflection, effervescing as the backing rock riff cycles back in. You can envision Wooten’s infectious grin as he holds it all together with seamless shifts in complex bass lines that would make other players grit their teeth. By the way, 23/4 has never grooved so hard!

"Takatakita Blues" uses sly alternation of cycling and walking bass for liquid guitar tone to play off of the melody and the solo section, with drummer Watson going stratospheric for the breakdown and ending. "Ragabop" is just that, the burning acoustic jazz track that had to be made, Alphonso’s fretless bass doubling the bop head, then buoying Prasanna’s acoustic ragamorphisms, which progress in orderly fashion from straight ahead and uncolored to panethnically ornamental, chockfull of slides and bends. "Grapevine" demonstrates Wooten’s inventiveness as an accompanist, with Prasanna squeezing strat tone from his Les Paul. He takes occasion to fire off his loosest and most incendiary solo on the date, building to passages during which every 32nd note seems impossibly slid into and out of. Wooten even spices the mix with his now patented slap gymnastics.

"Satyam" begins with Shalini, Prasanna’s wife, singing ethereally, gorgeously, life-affirmingly, the Sanskrit verses from the ancient Mundaka Upanishads, or Wisdom Bibles, of India. A prog-rock soundscape created by the power trio of Prasanna, Humphrey and Alphonso, who’s at the peak of his game throughout, is supplemented by Suzuki's woodwinds, enmeshing Prasanna’s commanding vocal before he throws in a Hendrixian solo for good measure. Sung in English, the lyrics mirror the Sanskrit’s emphasis of living life’s karma truthfully, and expand on Mahatma Gandhi’s perhaps most powerful maxim: "You must be the change you wish to see in this world."

Of the program, "Satyam" and Shalini's rapturous vocal showcase "Bliss Factor" most suggest the staggering potential of this music to reach through and around the mere "jazz audience" to the rest of world’s hungry listeners. Human nature becomes most profound when disparity begets commonality, when religion, custom, tradition, idealism and all manner of cultural bounty merge to reveal we are all, on some level, joyously, wondrously similar. With all the vast individuality he brings as a composer, improviser and band-member, Prasanna comes together with these two virtuoso groups of western musicians and melds seamlessly.

He doesn’t just call a couple of all-star sessions so he can spread his stuff over the top. He more than creates something new-he is something new. That’s where the title of the record comes in. Things are changing - east does more than meet west here- directions cease to matter. In the context of music, which so often accelerates past the progress of humans in the remainder of their endeavor, Prasanna has already transcended being a catalyst or orchestrator of change 'he’s become it'- wherever he pops up, there it shall be. A godsend from India to us, he has, through his formidable gifts, combined with impassioned desire and commitment, arrived seemingly instantly full-blown, yet developing.