In recent months, the Lahore Arts Council, in addition to sponsoring other cultural activities, has focused on highlighting the lives and achievements of Pakistani musicians, directly or indirectly. It offers its facilities to art promoting cultural organisations who, present music programs featuring frontline musicians of Pakistan.
The latest in the series of LAC programmes was an evening with tabla wizard Altaf Husain a.k.a. Ustad Tafo on January 9, which was attended by a large number of Lahore based musicians, especially tabla players, connoisseurs and students of music. The maestro was at his best when he demonstrated his prowess in the art of solo tabla playing, which won him thunderous applause from knowledgeable audiences.
Ustad Altaf Husain, affectionately known among his professional musicians as Ustad Tafo, is a master tabla player, who now has no rival in Pakistan. A shagird (progeny) of legendary Ustad Mian Qadir Bakhsh Pakhawaji, he has spent the better part of his life in learning and practising the delicate art of rhythm keeping and holding solo concerts. His fingers at the pair of drums move so fast that it is almost impossible to fathom their speed and movement.
Ustad Tafo has, in the past, demonstrated his prowess at concerts held in Pakistan, India and a large number of other countries, including United Kingdom, the United States of America and Canada, besides in countries of the Persian Gulf. His melodic erudition and abundant performing skills were highly appreciated here with thunderous applause during his concerts.
Currently, he is considered by knowledgeable appreciators of the art of tabla playing and members of his fraternity, the fastest in the world. If someone has any doubt about the speed of his fingers and of the large number of combinations and permutations of rhythms he has in his repertoire, he has to see the maestro in action, as did a large number of people at the Lahore Arts Council.
I made his acquaintance over half a century ago, when young Tafo used to visit the baithak of renowned classical vocalist and teacher, Dehliwale Ustad Sardar Khan, at the entrance of Taxali Gate, where he used to listen and benefit from the melodic wisdom of the great Ustad, a grandson of Mian Qutab Bakhsh alias Taan Ras Khan, teacher of music of the last Mughal Emperor Bahadhur Shah Zafar. To maintain his proficiency in the art, and to be in a state of readiness for demonstrating his prowess at short notice, Ustad Tafo spends several hours daily in vigorous training.
To achieve mastery in the art of tabla playing and rhythm keeping, one needs to spend a major part of his life training under the watchful eyes of a competent mentor and uninterrupted riaz (training) for several hours daily.
Only an artiste with firm commitment and unwavering belief can achieve this distinction.
Other shagirds of Khalifa Qadir Bakhsh who have won world renown, as Ustad Tafo has were Ustad Allah Rakha Khan, who migrated to India. Besides scoring music in a number of films with A. R. Qureshi, he became a long time companion with sitar maestro Pundit Ravi Shankar, and the renowned tabla player Ustad Mian Shaukat Husain, who died in Lahore a few years ago.
The other dimension of Ustad Tafo's melodic personality is that he has composed music for a large number of films produced from the Lahore movie studios, during the past several decades. Dozens of film songs, to which he provided melodic raiment, have won countrywide recognition and he was admired for his creative skill at composing popular film songs, which enhanced the lyrics.
In addition to transferring his skills of the tabla to many aspirants, Ustad Tafo has trained several members of his family, including Ballo, Tanvir, Sajjad, Aftab, Wajid and Shehzad, both in the art of composition, as well as tabla playing.
The votaries of his art and his friends in the musical fraternity now lovingly call him Shahinshah-e-Tabla (Emperor of the art of tabla playing).