Question

Alla Rakha was an exponent of which of the following instruments?
a. Shehnai
b. Tabla
c. Sitar
d. Santoor

Answer 1

Hint: Ustad Alla Rakha is known as ‘Einstein’ & ‘Picasso’ of the instrument in the world. Ustad Alla Rakha took Indian classical music to the West and was also father and teacher to Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Complete step by step answer:
Alla Rakha was born in Ghagwal village in Jammu and Kashmir in 1919. He was one of seven children born into a poor family. He showed an inclination for music from an early stage in life. When He was around eight years old, he heard an exponent of the Punjab Gharana play tabla, and decided to pursue it, despite the opposition and poverty from his family. To play on his own, Alla Rakha left home at the early age of 13 in search of an ustad. He was specifically in search of Mian Qadir Baksh of the Punjab Gharana, who lived in Lahore. The two years he spent teaching the tabla and playing at music fairs to collect the money and he earned his way to Lahore and into Mian Qadir’s tutelage, where Mian Qadir himself came to see him after hearing of his works and started to teach him as a student. After mastering the art, Alla Rakha became an artist for All India Radio in Lahore, later moved to Delhi, and then, within a year, to Bombay. His day to day increasing rise brought him recognition and he started to be recognized as the greatest proponent of the Punjab Gharana of tabla, founded by Lala Bhawani Das, one of Emperor Akbar’s court musicians. In the 1960s, Alla Rakha’s partnership with Ravi Shankar began and the two of them were selected to be part of a cultural delegation to represent India abroad. And so, the duo began with their Tabla shaping the beginnings of ‘fusion music’ by taking Indian classical music to the West.

So, the correct answer is Option :

Note: Alla Rakha also recorded a studio album with an American jazz drummer Buddy Rich in 1968 and the album was considered a seminal work of East-West fusion music. Alla Rakha also collaborated with and inspired many prominent rock artists of the 1960s and 70s.