Taufiq Qureshi

Biography:

Alla Rakha, a tabla player, was born in Mumbai. Zakir Hussain, his eldest brother, plays the tabla as well. Pandit Vikku Vinayakram, the Ghatam Vidhwan, provided him with advice.

In his twenties, Qureshi began his professional career. When he formed his own global music group, “Surya,” in 1986–1987, that is when he started doing live concerts.

Recalling Shakti, Masters of Percussion, Summit, and Global Drum Project are albums that won the 2009 Grammy Award in which he performed. For fusion concerts, he works with a variety of classical musicians.

Being a committed self-student, Qureshi quickly realized that he had “a feel for the world of sound with all its intricate nuances,” which was his greatest strength. Because of this attribute, he is in high demand in the studio recording industry as a rhythm programmer, arranger-composer, and percussionist (film background scores, TV serials, ad-jingles, records, etc.).

He is proficient on several percussion instruments, including the batajon, bongos, duff, and djembe. He is the first musician to have adapted the tabla syllables on the African drum known as the Djembe into a distinctive rhythmic language.

Body and voice percussions are used in Qureshi’s signature style to generate distinctive rhythmic themes that cut across cultural boundaries.

Sandeep Marwah recently awarded Qureshi a life membership in the Asian Academy of Film & Television’s International Film and Television Club at Marwah Studio in Noida Film City as a token of appreciation.

He has been a teacher for more than ten years. Qureshi is wed to Jaipur-Atrauli gharana vocalist Geetika Varde. Shikhar Naad Qureshi, his only son, attended Mumbai’s St. Xavier’s College. Shikhar plays rhythm as well. He’s also a stage performer.