MUMBAI: Each year on the 3rd of February, artists, and audiences gather to pay their respect to the legendary Ustad Allahrakha with the event, “A Homage to Abbaji – Ustad Allarakha”. This dawn to dusk event completed 20 years and this year was truly special as this was the centenary year celebrations. The concert was held at Sri Shanmukhananda Chandrasekarendra Saraswathi Auditorium, Mumbai - saw a great turn out from music lovers for all three sessions.
Zakir Hussain shared, “Through these 20 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.”
This unique event is Co-Presented by Taj Mahal Tea & Reliance Foundation and powered by DBS Bank.
In the first session, “TAAL PRANAAM” which began at 7 am and went on till 11 am saw artists such as
Students of Ustad Allarakha Institute of Music;
Suresh Wadkar & Students of Ajivasan;
Purbayan Chatterjee [Sitar]
Ojas Adhiya [Tabla]
Zakir Hussain [Tabla]
Fazal Qureshi [Tabla]
The second session, “TAAL TAPASYA” which began at 11 am continued till 4 pm - which was the longest session saw mesmerizing performances by -
Zakir Hussain [Tabla], Fazal Qureshi [Tabla], & Taufiq Qureshi [Djembe]
Shubh Maharaj [Tabla]
Akhilesh Gundecha [Pakhawaj]
Trichy Sankaran[Mridangam]
The evening session, “CELEBRATE ABBAJI” which began by 7 PM had the stage full with various artists coming together for the Jam such as -
South Indian Folk Drummers
Greg Ellis [Drums]
Louiz Banks [Piano & Keyboards] Sanjay Divecha [Guitar], Ganesh Rajagopalan [Violin], Selvaganesh [Kanjira], Gino Banks [Drums], Sheldon D'Silva [Bass] & Zakir Hussain [Tabla]
Salim Sulaiman & Ensemble
Jam Session lead by Zakir Hussain featuring National & International Artistes