|
Ustad Alla Rakha, A World Pays Tribute to India's Master Drummer (1352 words) |
 | Alla Rakha, who was universally known by that name, sometimes rendered as Allarakha, usually preceded by the honorific Ustad, which means teacher or guru, died of a heart attack at age 80 on Feb. 3, just hours after his 50-year-old daughter, Razia, died suddenly and unexpectedly after routine cataract surgery. |
| Alla Rakha's students have come each night, and among them was a 25-year-old tabla player from Minneapolis, Suphala Patnakar, who talks in a flat Midwestern accent but wears her hair in long dark ringlets down her back and dresses in an Indian-style white tunic over matching pants. |
| Alla Rakha's elder daughter, Kurshid Aulia, said she had the rhythm in her but her mother would not allow a daughter, who should be learning to cook and clean, to become a musician. |
|
A legend is born (2129 words) |
| Alla Rakha's fingers elevated tabla accompaniment from the subservient to the sublime. |
| Alla Rakha was born in 1919 into an artistic family in Phagwal, a village near Jammu, in which tabla playing had been a passion for generations. |
| Alla Rakha was escorted to Kadar Baksh as "a boy of 15 from an unknown village". |
Feeds |
Contact