Mir Naqibul Islam: Tabla Waves - A New Sound

Mir Naqibul Islam:

Mir Naqibul Islam (b. 1989 in Dhaka, Bangladesh) is a New York based tabla player from the farukhabad gharana. He has trained in the traditional guru-shishya parampara pedagogical convention of North Indian classical music from Pandit Ashoke Paul, a disciple of the great Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh. Mir began learning tabla at the age of seven from Pt. Madan Gopal Das at Chhayanaut, a renowned music school in Dhaka, and completed a six-year-long course from 1996 to 2001. Thereafter, he continued onto advanced tabla studies with Pandit Ashoke Paul from the farukhabad gharana. During 2010–2012, he also received training in the benaras gharana of tabla from Pandit Gopal Mishra at the Indira Gandhi Cultural Center in Dhaka. Mir was also connected to the Bengal Parampara Sangeetlaya (BPS), Dhaka as a music scholar from 2014–2016 under Guru Padma Shri Pandit Suresh Talwalkar and received training in the delhi gharana of tabla during this time. Currently, Mir is continuing his advanced tabla studies with the legendary maestro Pandit Anindo Chatterjee.

Mir regularly performs tabla solo recitals in addition to accompanying vocalists, instrumentalists, and dancers from South Asian traditions including Hindustani and Bengali classical and semi-classical forms. He has received international acclaim for his performances for diverse audiences across Bangladesh, India, and the US. He has performed with world renowned musicians such as Pandit Krishna Mohan Bhatt, Pandit Tarun Bhattacharya, Pandit Anirban Dasgupta, Pandit Steve Gorn, Vidushi Bharati Pratap, Gyan Riley, Ben Monder, and Premik Russel among others. He has been an active member of the New York based musicians collective Brooklyn Raga Massive since 2016, playing a key role in experimental and genre crossing projects with the collective throughout.

Tabla Waves: A New Sound is a contemporary reimagining of the traditional tabla solo. Rooted in the centuries-old rhythmic traditions of North Indian classical music, Mir Naqibul Islam explores the tabla through new sonic perspectives, drawing from electronic music, improvisation, jazz, folk traditions, and other contemporary influences. At its core, the tabla recital remains the foundation, while sound, rhythm, and technology open new possibilities for how this timeless instrument can be heard.

The collaborators are:

Mir Naqibul Islam: Tabla

Srikar Ayyalasomayajula: Harmonium

Mehrnam Rastegari: Kamancheh

Randall Dunn: Synthesizer

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