Fazal Qureshi (Percussionist and Son of Ustad Alla Rakha)
I think Abbaji's contribution is evident because his style is used or adopted by a lot of tabla players. They may not come and listen to him but they are so influenced by his rhythmic structures and his way of improvising rhythm cycles. He has influenced so many tabla players over generations and that is his most important contribution. Tabla is rhythm. Rhythm can be anything and the way he improvised a rhythm cycle becomes a role model for the rest of tabla players to follow.
How did he relate to his gharana?
He learned Punjab style in a very traditional way, in the seat of the Punjab gharana. But a style of playing is the person who is teaching that style of playing. Each individual style evolves and then students in turn learn from that teacher. So beside his traditional style he had his own contribution, his own style, a piece of history which he created and passed on to us. So I think it's not just Punjab gharana but his own personal style which has grown popular. But if you listen to Punjab gharana, it is totally different from what he does. So he has taken one step forward. That's what evolution is all about. You have 1930s and 1940s style which is a traditional style of tabla they learned from 18th and 19th century tabla players. But that has changed over the period. That's the beauty of modern classical music, that we are able to put our own thoughts and contributions into it. But Abbaji took that, and based on that solid tradition he added his own style, improvisation, attitude, thinking, personality.
My father did a lot of film music as well. Because he loved vocal music which he learned for ten years. He actually sang for the radio where he was employed in the late 30s and early 40s. He used to be a singer and a tabla player on the radio. So he got a lot of offers to do films and he sang on his earlier films as a playback singer. So he is a complete musician because he hase ventured into so many different things. He was the first to sing and play the tabla and not only doing music in films but also giving playback. And he was the first to venture into fusion music, in those days playing with Buddy Rich. So these are the things that his open-mindedness has carried on to us.
He was a revolutionary of his time, which a lot of people don't realize. He accepted and revered a lot of gurus of other gharanas also. He loved them. He would go and sit with them, call them over to his house. In those days it was not done to mix with other musicians. They used to mix, but not asking them to come to each other's homes for months as he did. But if he liked someone or liked the music, regardless of what gharana or style, he would do all he could to establish a friendship. There were strict boundaries between gharanas in those days because everyone wanted to talk about purity. And the attitude was that you could only have purity if you had strict boundaries. Which my father was also following. He was a traditionally gharana influenced man. But if there was something good, he was willing to go and listen, appreciate and take it. So this was very important. So he has revolutionized. And this has gone one step further in my older brother (Zakir Hussain) who actually adopted other styles, playing in his own playing. It is something that was given to him by our father, the attitude: We must listen to other gharanas. Not only listening to them but accepting and playing them. He saw this as the basic step to evolving into something and taking it on into the next century. And one of the reasons that Punjab gharana is one of the most popular gharanas is because of these revolutionary ideas.
Will you hold a concert like this every year?
Yes. We used to do an annual concert. (before his passing) But now we will do this every February 3rd in memory of him.
What was it like to have a guru and a father in one person?
I was basically in awe of everything. I was a young tabla player, trying to come up and I had this influence in my life. But my father never took us for granted. Nor did he let us take him for granted. But he taught me just as he would any student. There were no preferences or privileges. I sat with all the other students and learned the same things that they were learning. So it was all equal. And that's what I liked about it. When we were not learning from him he was a different person. A father.
Page 2