Craig Pruess

Craig Pruess
Born	December 18, 1950 (1950-12-18) (age 60) White Plains, New York, USA
Website
http://www.heaven-on-earth-music.co.uk/

Craig Pruess (born 1950) is an American composer, musician, arranger and gold & platinum record producer who has been living in Britain since 1973. His career has covered diverse areas including: record production for international stars such as Anu Malik, Sir Cliff Richard, Sarah Brightman, Sheila Walsh (whose first album, "War of Love" was produced and arranged by Craig and was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1983); musical arrangements for Massive Attack, Def Leppard, Bond; feature film soundtrack music (Bride & Prejudice, Bend It Like Beckham, What's Cooking?, Bhaji on the Beach); world music producing, performing (sitar, keyboards and African percussion) and arranging for international acts such as Massive Attack, Katie Melua, Manic Street Preachers, Def Leppard and Pascal Obispo; television music ("Peak Practice", Sue Lawley Show, Rich Deceiver, ZigZag Kenya, Samson Superslug) and also arranging, sitar and sound design work (for such well known composers as Danny Elfman, Gabriel Yared, Patrick Doyle, Carl Davis, John Altman, Rachel Portman, and George Fenton); television and film advertising/corporate music (over 300 commercials to date); lecturing and teaching; concert performing (solo and with his own ensembles but also with Mike Oldfield for the world premiere of "Tubular Bells II", September 1992, at the Edinburgh Castle); sound engineering, synthesizer and computer music programming, sound design and music technology innovations.

Craig has composed the original music score for a string of major films by Gurinder Chadha's , including her number one UK box office smash hit films, Bend It Like Beckham" (top ten in the USA box office, number 1 in India), and Bride & Prejudice". Craig scored her previous films, including "Bhaji on the Beach" (1993) and "What's Cooking?", which opened the big US Sundance Film Festival, January 2000 and released throughout the USA in October 2000, to critical acclaim (UK release was September 2001). Gurinder Chadha's big romantic Bollywood influenced feature film, "Bride and Prejudice", stars the big names of Aishwarya Rai, Anupam Kher and Martin Henderson, released by Miramax (USA) and Pathé (Europe) in October 2003, again was number one in the UK, India and South Africa, settling for number 15 for 3 weeks in the USA. Aishwarya Rai is again the big star in Craig's further film score project, "The Mistress of Spices",^[1] directed by Paul Mayeda Berges, which was released in the UK and India early 2006. Craig has scored Gurinder's latest feature film, "It's a Wonderful Afterlife", which is for a spring 2010 world-wide release.

In 2009, Craig was nominated for Best Soundtrack at the RTS Awards (Royal Television Society) for his music for the acclaimed BBC-TV drama series, "Moses Jones". Since the series, he has teamed up with talented Ugandan musicians, Denis Mugagga and Daniel Sewagudde (formerly of DaTwinz fame in Africa), to create the group the Ganda Boys, with an album "The War of Love" released in 2009, and live shows in London. Craig is scoring the high profile BBC-TV drama series, "Five Days II", for Jan 2010.

Brazilian music featured in Craig's 2006 soundtrack: 90 minute Discovery Channel docu-drama "Gold Diggers - The Biggest Bank Robbery in History". An edgy, fast paced expose of the 2005 massive bank robbery in Fortelesa, Brazil, directed by British director James Erskine. Featuring energetic Brazilian rhythms and tribal percussion layers, along with a filmic, hard-hitting music score, the program itself has become part of the police investigation in Brazil! In 2007, Craig composed the soundtrack for Turner Prize nominated artist Zarina Bhimji's film Waiting), which became part of the prestigious Turner Prize exhibition in Liverpool during October 2007.

As a songwriter, Craig has penned the Christmas No. 1 UK chart single (December 1999/January 2000), one of the double A sides ("Two Worlds"), part of Sir Cliff Richard's chart hit, "Millennium Prayer" (sales over one million). In November 1999, Craig was nominated to be the composer for the most successful independent television drama series in British history, "Peak Practice", completing the very last four series (13 episodes each) for Carlton Television until its conclusion in 2003.

In 2000, Craig contributed keyboards and sounds for composer John Altman on the US television film, "RKO 281 - the Making of Citizen Kane", which received 13 nominations for the Emmy Awards, winning the Emmy for best music soundtrack for 2000. Craig worked in his home studio with the director of the film, Ben Ross, to record and perform the initial music sketches, and then also played keyboards with the orchestra for the final recordings of the soundtrack in London.

Craig is the director/founder of the UK record label Heaven on Earth Music, and is an active Art of Living teacher for many years. He is married with four children, and has lived in Wiltshire, UK, for many years. He is also a painter, photographer, graphic designer and poet.

Discography

(as artist/producer/arranger/musician/performer)

• CAIN!! (1976)
• VISITOR 2035 (1978)
• Widor's Tocatta (1978)
• Tocatta & Fugue in D minor (1978)
• Happy Together (1979)
• Too Beautiful to Cry (1983)
• The Eye of Jupiter (1988)
• Through the Ages (1992)
• Welcome Home (1994)
• Terracotta (1996)
• Sacred Chants of Shiva (1997)
• Earth Dancer (1999)
• Sacred Chants of Buddha (2000)
• Sacred Chants of Rama (2001)
• Temple of Spice (2002)
• 108 Sacred Names of Mother Divine (2003)
• Language of Love (2003)
• Jupiter/Pictures (2003)
• Tribal Drums at Avebury (2006)
• Guided Meditation (2007)
• At-Ma - City in the Sky (2007)
• Angel of the Earth (2008)
• Ganda Boys - the War of Love (2009)

(as record producer/arranger for other artists)

• Sir Cliff Richard - "Now You See Me", "Silver", "Only Way Out", "Where Do We Go From Here", "Little Town", "Ocean Deep", "Under the Influence", "Drifting" (with Sheila Walsh)
• Sheila Walsh - "War of Love", "Triumph in the Air", "Don't Hide Your Heart", "Turn, Turn, Turn"
• Marietta Parfitt - "Do You Wanna Dance" (with Rick Parfitt)
• Aleksander Mecek - "Silent Witness"
• Anu Malik - "Eyes"
• Paul Sylvan - "Silent Witness", "Love Always Listens"
• Deepa Nair - "Into the Light"
• Alycia Lang - "She Do That"

(as arranger for other artists)

• Sylvia Love - "Instant Love" and "Extraterrestrial Lover" (1979) (synthesizer, arranger)
• Massive Attack - "100th Window" (strings, orchestral conductor, plays sitar)
• Def Leppard - "Turn to Dust" from the album "Slang" (strings, conductor, Indian percussion)
• Bond - "Shine", "Fuego" from the album "Shine" (strings, conductor, plays sitar, swaramandala)

(as musician/performer for other artists)

• Katie Melua - "Halfway Up the Hindu Kush" from the album "Piece by Piece" (sitar)
• Manic Street Preachers - "Tsunami" from the album "This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours"
• Joe Cocker - "Let It Be" (keyboard solo)
• Sarah Brightman - "I Fell in Love with a Starship Trooper" (keyboards and electronics)
• Mike Oldfield - "Tubular Bells II" (world premier concert DVD)
• Gareth Gates - "Spirit in the Sky" (sitar solo)
• A Little Princess - film and CD sound track (sitar)
• The Guru - film and CD sound track (sitar)
• The Next Best Thing - film and CD sound track (sitar)
• Charlie & the Chocolate Factory - film and CD sound track (sitar, swaramandala, tambura)
• Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire - film and CD sound track (sitar solo)

(as film composer - soundtrack albums released)

• Bhaji on the Beach
• What's Cooking?
• Bend It Like Beckham
• Bride & Prejudice
• It's a Wonderful Afterlife

(as songwriter/composer for other artists)

• "Two Worlds" double A side of number 1 million selling UK chart single "Millennium Prayer" - Sir Cliff Richard
• "Young Americans Talking" - David Van Day
• "Superhero" - David Reilly
• "Red Desert", "Nataraj Express" - James Asher
• "Earth Tribe Transmission" - Ben Waters/World Chill Boogie project
• "When We Search For Beauty", "These Words", "There's a Book" - Alycia Lang
• "The Rules Don't Apply to You" - Relaxed Willy

Filmography

• Bhaji on the Beach (1993)
• Bombay Brownwash (1993)
• What Do You Call an Indian Woman Who's Funny (1994)
• Samson Superslug (1994) ITV series
• Zigzag Kenya (1994) BBC-TV
• Rich Deceiver (1995) (BBC-TV drama series, 2 parts)
• Blue Funnel (1997) (short film)
• What's Cooking? (2000)
• Bend It Like Beckham (2002)
• Peak Practice (52 episodes, 1999–2003)
• The Calligrapher (2004)
• Bride & Prejudice (2004)
• The Mistress of Spices (2005)
• Jane Hall (2006) - ITV
• Scream of the Ants (2006) film
• Gold Diggers (2007) Discovery Channel documentary
• Waiting (2007) - installation film for the Turner Prize
• Moses Jones (2008) - BBC-TV drama series
• It's a Wonderful Afterlife - (2009) feature film
• Five Days II - (2010) BBC-TV drama series

References

1. ^ "Indian music into Hollywood winner!". Financial Express. October 31, 2005. http://www.financialexpress.com/old/latest_full_story.php?content_id=107313. 

• Craig Pruess at last.fm

External links

• Craig Pruess at the Internet Movie Database
• Heaven on Earth Music, Official website

Persondata
Name	Pruess, Craig
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 18, 1950
Place of birth	White Plains, New York, USA
Date of death
Place of death