Background information
Birth name Alla Rakha Q
Born 29 April 19
Paghwal, Jam
Kashmir, Britis
Origin Dogra India
Died 3 February 2000
Mumbai , Maharas
Genres Hindustani classi
Instruments tabla
Associated
acts
Ravi Shankar, Zaki
Aditya Kalya
Qureshi Alla Rakha Khan
(Dogri : क़ुरैशी अल्ला रखा ख़ान)
popularly known as Alla Rakha
(29 April 1919 – 3 February 2000)
was an Indian tabla player. He
was a frequent accompanist of
Ravi Shankar.
Personal life and education
Alla Rakha was born in Paghwal,
Jammu, British India. His mother
tongue was Dogri . He became
fascinated with the sound and
rhythm of the tabla at the age of
12, while staying with his uncle
in Gurdaspur. After partition of
India, his family migrated to
Pakistan (village Rambari, Tehsil
Shakargarh, district Sialkot).
Finding little chances for
grooming and appreciation, the
determined young lad ran away
from home, became a disciple of
and began studying tabla with
Mian Kader Baksh of the Punjab
gharana.
He studied voice and Raag Vidya
under Ashiq Ali Khan of the
Patiala gharana. His regimen of
practice and dedication were
legendary: hours upon hours of
hard, disciplined practice, that
would later pay off.
He was married to Bavi Begum,
and had three sons, Zakir
Hussain , Fazal Qureshi and Taufiq
Qureshi, a daughter Khurshid
Aulia née Qureshi, and nine
grandchildren. Alla Rakha had
another daughter, Razia, whose
death preceded his by less than
24 hours. [1] He also married to a
lady belonging to Faisalabad,
Pakistan. It was a love marriage.
Rohi Bano, a popular TV actress
in 1980s, was his daughter from
this wedlock. She is still alive. His
another brother Sabir practised
tabla in Lahore.
Career
Alla Rakha began his career as an
accompanist in Lahore and then
as an All India Radio staffer in
Bombay in 1940, playing the
station's first ever tabla solo and
elevating the instrument's
position in the process. Soon
after, he composed music for a
couple of Hindi films from
1943-48.
However, he still played as an
accompanist, for soloists like
Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Allauddin
Khan, Vilayat Khan, Vasant Rai, Ali
Akbar Khan and most notably,
Ravi Shankar. The venerable
master achieved world renown as
Ravi Shankar's chief accompanist
during his apex in the 1960s,
delighting audiences in the West
with his percussive wizardry, not
only as an uncanny accompanist
with flawless timing and
sensitivity but also as a soloist
where he was a master of
improvisation, a prolific composer
and an electric showman. The
partnership was particularly
successful, and his legendary and
spellbinding performances with
Shankar at the Monterey Pop
Festival in 1967 and the
Woodstock Festival in 1969
served to introduce classical
Indian music to general Western
audiences.
He became a Guru (teacher) to
Sankha Chatterjee (in 1962),
Yogesh Samsi , Prafulla Athalye ,
Aditya Kalyanpur, Anuradha Pal,
Nishikant Barodekar, Uday
Ramdas, Shyam Kane, and his
sons Taufiq Qureshi and Fazal
Qureshi. His eldest son, Zakir
Hussain is also an accomplished
tabla virtuoso.
Global influence
Ustad Alla Rakha Khan
popularized the art of tabla,
playing across the globe,
elevating the status and respect
of his instrument. Abbaji (as he
was affectionately known by his
disciples) also bridged the gap
between Carnatic music and
Hindustani music by playing with
both renowned Carnatic
musicians and other Hindustani
stalwarts.
Leading American percussionists
in Rock n' Roll , such as the
Grateful Dead 's Mickey Hart ,
admired him and studied his
technique, benefiting greatly
even from single meetings. Hart,
a published authority on
percussion in world music , said
"Alla Rakha is the Einstein, the
Picasso; he is the highest form of
rhythmic development on this
planet." Alla Rakha also
collaborated with jazz drummer
Buddy Rich , on their 1968 album
Rich à la Rakha.[2]
Ustad Alla Rakha Khan was
awarded the Padma Shri in
1977[3] and the Sangeet Natak
Akademi Award in 1982.
Death
Alla Rakha died on 3 February
2000 at his Simla House
residence on Nepean Sea Road
following a heart attack, which he
suffered on learning of the death
of his daughter, Razia, the
previous evening.
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