Farrukhabad Tabla Gharana

Munir Khan (1863-1938)

Ahmedjan Thirakwa (1892-1976)

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Profile

This gharana, usually spoken if in connection with the Awadh Court, was founded by Vilayet Ali, in the late eighteenth century. Vilayet Ali was the son-in-law and disciple of Mian Bakshi, the founder of the Lucknow gharana. After the deposing of Wajid Ali Shah, many of the gharana's musicians shifted to the Rampur court. The Nawab of Rampur's death led to another shift, in 1927, this time to Calcutta where later Keramatullah Khan and his son, Sabir Khan based themselves. Keramatullah Khan personally reverted to playing on the kinar section of the tabla to create the sharpness of the Delhi style, but his son remained with the Farrukhabad style.

The playing style of this gharana belongs to the Purab baj (or the khula baj) and has maintained its affinities of the pakhwaj (a predecessor of the tabla) tradition. The richness of the Lucknowi gharana playing is found here as well. The Farrukhabad technique emphasizes playing on the sur and shyahi (when playing the right hand drum, the dayan), avoiding the kinar. Performing in barabar laya (basic tempo) and ad (fractions and multiples of one-and--half) laya are the norm.

At the turn of the last century the the leading players of the gharana were Nanne Khan (1863-1937) and Munir Khan (1863-1938) out. Masit Khan(1882?-19??) took over from Munir Khan. Keramatullah Khan (1918-1977) son of Masit Khan trained his son Sabir Khan (b. 1959), who is the current head of the gharana. The legendary Ahmedjan Thirakwa (1892-1976) was a disciple of Munir Khan. Ahmedjan Thirakwa was in the court of Rampur for a long time and even after that was very active with Bhatkhande institute training a lot of students. Jnan Prakash Ghosh, a very influential musical personality of Calcutta, was a disciple of Masit Khan and an active tabla player in 50s and 60s. He trained three generation of tabla players many of whom turned out to be great masters of Tabla - Nikhil Ghosh, Kanai Dutta, Anindo Chatterjee, Bikram Ghosh. Many students of these players have become maestros themselves - Nayan Ghosh, Tanmoy Bose, Amalesh Chatterjee.

Source : tabla-schule.ch

Artists

• Ahmedjan Thirakwa (1892-1976)
• Amalesh Chatterjee
• Anindo Chatterjee
• Bikram Ghosh
• Jnan Prakash Ghosh
• Kanai Dutta
• Keramatullah Khan (1918-1977)
• Masit Khan
• Munir Khan (1863-1938)
• Nanne Khan (1863-1937)
• Nayan Ghosh
• Nikhil Ghosh
• Sabir Khan
• Tanmoy Bose
• Vilayet Ali(founder)

Links

• Ahmedjan Thirakwa at Chandrakantha.com