Lucknow Tabla Gharana

Abid Hussain Khan (1867-1936)

Wazid Hussain Khan (1906-1971)

Profile          Artists          Links          A Profile by James Kippen

Profile

Founded by Miyan Bakshu Khan during the eighteenth century, this school was heavily patronized by the nawabs of Awadh and came to be closely linked with kathak performance. This allowed the emergence of a vast repertoire. The playing style (baj) is classified as the Purab baj, also called the khula baj.

The Lucknow baj uses different parts of the tabla surface to produce a blend of sounds that are more fullsome than those of the Delhi gharana. There is a conscious effort to eliminate sharp sounds. The sur and shyahi parts of the tabla are played, and the kinar avoided.

The transformation form the role of tabla as accompaniment to vocal music to the role of the tabla as accompaniment to a rich dance form required complex items like gat, tukda, chakradhar. The paran-gat is a particularly characteristic gat of this gharana. The barabar and ad layas are popular in this school as well. The development of the Lucknow baj was the catalyst for the tabla emerging as a solo instrument in the Farrukhabad and Banaras gharanas.

At the turn of the 20th century the khalifa (head) of the gharana was Abid Hussain (1867-1930). Regarded as one of the best tabla players of his time, he served as the first Professor of Tabla at the Marris Music College (later, the Bhatkhande Music College). Wazid Hussain (1900-1971) was the Successor of Abid Hussain. His son Afaq Hussain (1930-1990) moved to Calcutta for a while and was a very successful accompanist. In later years he worked for the Sangeeth Natak Academy. The current head of the family is Afaq Hussain's son Ilmas Hussain (b. 1957). Dr. Santosh Krishna Biswas was another disciple of Afaq Hussain and is the guru of the foremost living representative of the gharana, Swapan Chaudhuri. Pt Swapan Chaudhuri now teaches tabla at the Ali Akbar College of Music and has trained many excellent tabla players. Another well known exponent, Sheikh Dawood Khan (1916-1992) is considered to be from this gharana, though he had several other influences. His disciple is the tabla maestro Abhiman Kaushal.

Source : tabla-schule.ch

Artists

• Abid Hussain (1867-1930)
• Afaq Hussain Khan (1930-1990)
• Abhiman Kaushal
• Anindo Chatterjee
• Ilmas Hussain
• Miyan Bakshu Khan (founder)
• Santosh Krishna Biswas
• Sheikh Dawood Khan
• Swapan Chaudhuri
• Wazid Hussain (1900-1971)

Links

• An article on Swapan Chaudhuri