Homage to Ustad Allarakha - It has been 19 years since the demise of the Great Guru and Tabla Maestro, Ustad Allarakha. The event, ‘A Homage to Abbaji – Ustad Allarakha’ began right from his 1st Barsi on February 3rd 2001.
This iconic event has always become one of the highlights in the musical performances calendar. February 3rd 2020 was no exception, when artists from across the globe came together to remember, pay homage and celebrate the legendary Guru and Tabla Maestro Ustad Allarakha. The event that was held at Shanmukhananda Auditorium Mumbai started at 6am and went on for nearly 17 hours featuring prominent artists from India as well as from abroad. TAG Institute is proud to have their faculties Mujeeb Dadarkar, Jayakrishnan Nalinkumar (JK) and Anupam Sathe to handle the Front of House (FOH) sound as well as Monitor Mix for the event.
Ustad Zakir Hussain shared, “Through these 18 years, we have had the good fortune of having some of the greatest luminaries of Indian music bless this occasion along with masters representing many musical and rhythmic traditions from all across the globe”.
The morning set ‘Taal Pranam’ began with recitals by Ustad Allarakha School of Music followed by devotional songs by popular singer Suresh Wadkar and students of Ajivasan Music Academy along with Ustad Zakir Hussain on Tabla. The set also featured sitar maestro Purbayan Chatterjee along with one of the most promising Tabla player of recent times Ojas Adhiya. Afternoon set ‘Taal Tapasya’ was a special one having Ustad Zakir Hussain and Ustad Fazal Qureshi on Tabla along with Ustad Taufiq Qureshi on Djembe, followed by performances from Shubh Maharaj (Tabla), Akhilesh Gundecha (Pakhawaj) and Trichi Sankaran on Mridangam.
To Know more about Abbaji we recommend Reading this article published by Hindustan Times
The evening jam session ‘Celebrate Abbaji’ led by Ustad Zakir Hussain was a jaw dropping one for the audience having South Indian folk drummers, multi-percussionist Greg Ellis, Louis Banks, Sanjay Divecha, George Brooks, Ganesh Rajagopalan, Rakesh Chaurasia, V.Selvaganesh, Gino Banks, Ranjit Barot, Darshan Doshi, Sivamani, Sheldon DSilva along with popular Bollywood composers Salim Sulaiman & Ensemble.
As Quoted by The Hindu in one of their articles “Greg Ellis, renowned percussionist who has also worked in 150 Hollywood scores including The Matrix: Reloaded, 300, Iron Man, Body Of Lies and Argo. Though he follows various global drumming styles, Ellis is particularly fond of Indian rhythms, having played with tabla maestros Ustad Zakir Hussain and Bickram Ghosh.”
The epic evening came to an end with an incredible Jam session when all the musicians performed together. Mumbai based Audio Solutions Company Electrocraft provided sound system for the event. Nearly 46 stage monitors from L-Acoutics were deployed along with 9 Stereo In-Ear monitor mixes with Sennheiser G4 Wireless transmitters and receiver belt packs. Microphones from manufacturers such as Shure, Sennheiser, Audio Technica, Neumann, AKG, DPA, Earthworks, Audix and Telefunken were used for various instruments. FOH console and Monitor consoles were industry’s latest Avid S6L that could handle the 96 microphone inputs and processing for the entire day. It was also a pleasure to have veteran engineers Aftab Khan and Samir Kripalani to be part of the Sound Mixing Team.
JK says “Live sound mixing is quite different than studio sound mixing. It’s all happening in the Now and there’s no chance for a retake. It’s a challenging one, but once you learn to accept the challenge, then it is one of the most fun-filled moments ever”.