Alla Rakha

Ustad Alla Rakha Khan (29 April 1919 - 3 February 2000) was an Indian tabla player who elevated the instrument to international prominence. Born in Phagwal village near Jammu, he was the eldest of seven sons in a Muslim Dogra family. His father, a former soldier, opposed his interest in music, but the young Alla Rakha was fascinated by the sound of tabla from the age of 12.

He ran away from home to become a disciple of Mian Qadir Baksh of the Punjab gharana, who adopted him as heir to the tradition. He also studied raag vidya (melodic knowledge) from Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan of Patiala gharana. He began his career as an accompanist in Lahore before joining All India Radio in Mumbai in 1940, and briefly composed for Hindi films from 1943-48.

By the late 1960s, Alla Rakha devoted himself entirely to classical music, forming a legendary musical partnership with sitarist Pandit Ravi Shankar that lasted three decades. Their iconic performance at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival and 1969 Woodstock brought Indian classical music to Western audiences. In 1985, he founded the Ustad Alla Rakha Institute of Music to train young tabla players. Called "the Einstein and Picasso of the tabla" and described by The New York Times as "the most important tabla drummer of his generation," he received the Padma Shri (1977) and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (1982). He is the father of tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and percussionists Fazal and Taufiq Qureshi.