Ustad Alla Rakha: Google doodles the tabla maestro's 95th birthday

New Delhi: The two Os on the Google logo turn into a tabla to commemorate the 95th birth anniversary of one of the greatest players of the Indian musical instrument. With the trademark smile on his lips Ustad Alla Rakha appears on the Google India home page tapping a taal.
Reverentially called Abbaji, Alla Rakha was born on April 29, 1919 in Phagwal, Jammu. His full name is Allarakha Qureshi Khansaheb.
He traced his musical lineage to the the Punjab gharana and was responsible for bringing the tabla to the non-Indian audiences while as an accompanist to another Indian musical legend, Ravi Shankar.

Reverentially called Abbaji, Alla Rakha was born on April 29, 1919 in Phagwal, Jammu.

At the age of 12 he left home to learn the tabla and in 1936 joined All India Radio in Lahore (now in Pakistan) and was in 1938 transferred to Bombay. After a few years of radio, he joined films as a music composer in 1943. He composed under the name AR Qureshi.
In 1958, he more or less stopped composing for films and began touring the world with Ravi Shankar and was instrumental in raising awareness about Indian classical music around the world.
Ustad Alla Rakha was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1977 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1982.
He founded the Alla Rakha Institute of Music in Bombay in 1985. His three sons - Zakir Hussain, Fazal Qureshi, and Taufiq Qureshi - are also respected tabla players.
Alla Rakha died on February 3, 2000 in Mumbai following a heart attack.

Ref : http://ibnlive.in.com/news/google-doodles-ustad-alla-rakhas-95th-birthday/468254-79.html

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