Alla Rakha

Ustaad Allarakha Qureshi (29 April 1919 – 3 February 2000), popularly known as Alla Rakha, was an Indian tabla player who specialized in Hindustani classical music. He was a frequent accompanist of sitar player Ravi Shankar and was largely responsible for introducing Tabla to the western audience. Ustad Allarakha Qureshi began his career as an accompanist in Lahore and then as an All India Radio, Delhi staffer in 1936 but later moved to Bombay in 1940, playing the station’s first ever tabla solo and elevating the instrument’s position in the process. Soon after, he composed music for a few Hindi films in the 1940s and the early 1950s under the name A. R. Qureshi.