We all know that he can create music out of anything at all (trash, beer barrels, rusted iron sheets included), but we couldn't have guessed that percussionist Taufiq Qureshi could also get inspired by the sound of our photographer clicking away
We all know that he can create music out of anything at all (trash, beer barrels, rusted iron sheets included), but we couldn't have guessed that percussionist Taufiq Qureshi could also get inspired by the sound of our photographer clicking away. 
Not the vain sort, he seemed to be just about enduring the photoshoot, till he discovered a rhythm there. The man who claims to draw inspiration from all sorts of sounds, released his album Ta Dha yesterday (the tabla syllable popularised by his father, the Late Ustad Allarakha). He tells CS how he got interested in music while the album plays in the background.
Sound of music
This album defines me as a musician as it can't be 'genreised.' It has folk and ghazals, classical and fusion music with performances by Niladri Kumar, Roop Kumar Rathod, Ganesh Rajgopalan and others. It has track featuring my father and another one by Zakir (Hussain) bhai, which makes it doubly special.
I still get goose bumps while performing with Zakirbhai. He's an absolute genius. When we were growing up, he would flick the letters that would come for our dad, and if any of them were concert invitations, he would reply back saying that Allarakha wasn't available to perform, but his son Zakir was.
I didn't indulge in such mischief though. But yes, in school I did tell my physical trainer that I could drum very well (even when I was a novice) so that I could avoid march past practice. Every year the boys were asked to march in the hot sun and I would see that the three boys who played the drums would happily sit in the shade and even get a cold drink.
So when one of them quit, I volunteered to replace him and my trainer agreed since I was Ustad Allarakha's son. That was the first time I tried my hand at drumming.
What crap!
As a 10-year-old I was a huge fan drummer Buddy Rich. I would badger my sister to play the LP, and I would listen to the album some four-five times in a day. Then in college I took up percussion very seriously performing at various college fests. Since then, I've tried to experiment with my music. Mumbai Stamp, a band that makes music from crap, has been one such venture.
The idea came to me when I was returning from Singapore. When I landed in Mumbai, the drastic difference between the two cities hit meu00a0- I saw garbage dumps and people defecating. So I called up some of my students and asked them to visit the garbage dump closest to them and pick up anything that they thought could be used to produce music. So now we've got plastic bags, beer barrels, iron sheets and more as part of our repertoire. Music is good as long as it sounds good.
Who: Taufiq Qureshi
What: Talking about his love for percussion
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