Suphala, Savoring the Beat of a Different Drum

NPR | By David Schulman

Published January 12, 2006 at 9:01 PM EST

The young percussionist known as Suphala studied for years with Ravi Shankar's tabla player, the late Usted Allarakha.

She still goes every year to Bombay, but she also likes to see where else the tabla can take her. Her musical journeys have included a concert in post-Taliban Afghanistan and a tour with the group Porno for Pyros.

Her solo CDs, including her most recent work, The Now, blend traditional sounds with trippy electronica.

For the series "Musicians in Their Own Words," Suphala describes how she gets the tabla to speak in many languages.

Features in the series are produced by David Schulman and NPR's Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr.

David Schulman

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