Prakash John
Prakash John is a Canadian rock and rhythm & blues bassist. He is known as one of the originators of the 'Toronto sound'. Early years John was born in Mumbai, India, in 1947. At age four, he was enrolled at the prestigious Protestant Cathedral and John Connon School, where he learned to play the piano and violin, and was exposed to Western and classical music, particularly that of J.S. Bach, W. A. Mozart, and Charles Wesley. In 1960, he and his family moved to Toronto, where he discovered WUFO 1080, an AM radio station in Buffalo, New York and, for the first time, heard American music and rhythm and blues. Inspired by Chuck Rainey, Motown legend James Jamerson, and Sly and the Family Stone bassist Larry Graham, John taught himself to play bass guitar. Career Bush, Funkadelic, Parliament, 1969-1971 In 1965, John went to a Wilson Pickett concert and was inspired to become a professional musician—not so much by Pickett's performance, but by that of the opening act, The Rogues (aka The Five Rogues). At his school, he formed his first R&B group, The Trikq, which served as the rhythm section for another band, George Olliver & The Soul Children. He became good enough that, in 1970, he was scouted, and asked to audition, for a band called Mandala—which was the new name of, incredibly, The Rogues. Mandala was about to break up, but some of its members formed a new band, Bush, which consisted of guitarist Domenic Troiano, singer Roy Kenner, keyboardist Hugh Sullivan, John, and the Finnish-Canadian drummer Pentti Glan (aka 'Whitey'). It was Glan who would have the most influence on John, who said "He was a tremendous drummer and had tremendous sense of groove and an unusual grasp of funk for that time, the New Orleans funk. Because I liked his style of playing and I shaped mine to suit that, it was like magic when we played." Bush moved to Los Angeles, recorded the album Bush, toured with Steppenwolf, and played with, among others, John Mayall and Three Dog Night. Bush then broke up—Troiano and Kenner left to join James Gang and Glan went to work on the solo album of Steppenwolf frontman John Kay. While in Los Angeles, John also taught guitar to Nick St. Nicholas (Steppenwolf), Kenny Gradney (Delaney & Bonnie and Little Feat), and Rosemary Butler (Birtha). Also at that time, John was asked to play on the recording of Van Morrison's album Moondance. He was invited, by Bobby Whitlock, to join Derek & the Dominos, and he was asked, by Rick Derringer and Edgar Winter, to join White Trash, with Winter asking three times. He declined these offers (to his regret). Instead, he spent some time as a counselor at a camp for handicapped children, where his mother was a teacher. When he was with George Olliver & The Soul Children, the band was in London, Ontario, where John's playing caught the attention of George Clinton, who was there with his