Alla Rakha

Alla Rakha ( born April 29, 1919 in Ratangarh; † 3 February 2000 in Mumbai) was an Indian tabla player and composer who occasionally sang and played the harmonium.

Alla Rakha joined at the age of 12 years for the first time publicly. At 15 he became a pupil and learned the tabla playing and singing by Kader Baksh of Ashiq Ali Khan. Since 1936, he has recorded for All India Radio in Delhi and later worked as a composer and musician for the Indian film industry. But his main activity was the classical music.

Through his appearances with Ravi Shankar at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967, at the Woodstock Festival in 1969 and at the Concert for Bangladesh, where he accompanied Ravi Shankar on the tabla, North Indian classical music in the West became known to a wider audience. During this time he also played an album with the jazz musicians Paul Horn and Buddy Rich one (Rich à la Rakha 1968).

Alla Rakha is considered one of the best tabla player of the 20th century and could thus help to establish the tabla as a solo instrument. He was representative of the Punjab Gharana. Among his pupils was next to his sons Zakir Hussain and Fazal Quereshi also the drummer of the Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart, who greatly admired him; on his solo album Rolling Thunder, he can also be heard.