Abdul Sattar Khan, popularly known as Ustad Tari Khan, is a Pakistani tabla player and vocalist. Tari Khan hails from the Punjab gharana and is the student of Ustad Miyan Shaukat Hussain. He has been awarded with many accolades such as Taj Poshi (Golden Crown), the Hazrat Amir Khusrow Award, as well as Pakistan's Pride of Performance Award (Pakistan's highest artistic honor) in 2008. Tari Khan belongs to the tabla playing gharana called the Punjab gharana. Today, he is acknowledged as one of the foremost Tabla players of all time by musicians all over the world.
Early life
Tari Khan was born in Lahore, Pakistan. He hails from a traditional Rababi family (Muslim musicians employed in the royal Darbar Sahib, chief Sikh temple in Amritsar). His father was a classical vocalist. At the age of six, Tari was so captivated by the Tabla playing of Ustad Miyan Shaukat Hussain Khan, that for the next eight years, Tari Khan heard Ustad Mian Shaukat Hussain Khan's tabla at various events. At fourteen, he formally became a student of Ustad Miyan Shaukat Hussain Khan, thus beginning his journey into Tabla. Three years later, he would go on to perform at the death anniversary of tabla master Miyan Qadir Baksh for over 2 hours.
Career
Ustad Tari became famous as the accompanist of the ghazal singer Mehdi Hassan, as well as Ghulam Ali. He always provided an exquisite accompaniment: clean, crisp s with astonishingly quick and interesting s to punctuate the verses. Because of this international exposure, musicians in India got to hear of him at a time when little cultural news escaped from Pakistan. Since then, Tari has gone on to musical scene as a tabla showman. Ustad Tari Khan has earned and has been awarded with several titles in his lifetime. The titles and awards range from being crowned the Golden Crown Taj Poshi, the Hazrat Ameer Khusro Award, as well as Pakistan's Pride of Performance Award, which has earned him the title of Tabla Prince of India and Pakistan.
Tari Khan has accompanied various classical artists like Pandit Jasraj, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Roshan Ara Begum, Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Ustad Ghulam Hassan Shaggan, Ustad Shafqat Ali Khan, Ustad Rais Khan (sitar player), Ustad Sharif Khan Poonchwaley (sitar player), Ustad Vilayat Khan (sitar player), and Pandit Ramesh Mishra, to name a few. He has also accompanied renowned singers like Ustad Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali, Jagjit Singh, Talat Aziz, Hariharan, Parvez Mehdi, Shankar Mahadevan, and Hans Raj Hans, to name a few.
"His fingers produce an amazing resonance on tabla," says Hans Raj Hans, a famous Punjabi Sufi music singer.
Some of his famous tabla pieces include "The Train", where he is able to mimic the sounds of a train on the tabla, and "International Keherwa", which features varying styles of the world in an 8 beat cycle.
Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan
Tari Khan has performed at the oldest ongoing Hindustani classical music festival, Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan, at the 130th and 132nd festivals. Ustad Tari played a Teentaal (16 beat cycle) solo, his famous piece "International Keherwa" (8 beat cycle), and also had a vocal performance during the 130th Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan. Anuradha Shukla, of The Tribune India, noted that Ustad Tari Khan, "...gave music enthusiasts a treat both rare and divine." For his performance at the 132nd festival, The Tribune India noted that Ustad Tari's performance was "the limelight of the evening."