When Lowell Lybarger introduced me to "Goga" it was with the implication that I was not going to believe what I heard. I couldn't! This doyen of the Qasur silsila of the Pakistani Panjab tabla gharana was a revelation: he produced a superbly quick, clear, and consummately musical playing of fabulous compositions. I know other great tabla players who similarly go crazy over his playing, never before having imagined that someone like this existed. In this clip he plays a purabi qaida, and one can hear the interaction with the audience: an audience made up entirely of other musicians (much more common in Pakistan than in India). Unfortunately, Bashir Hussain "Goga" died in Lahore in 1991.

There is another spectacular example of "Goga" in an online article by Lowell Lybarger called "On Musicians' Speech About Music: Musico-Linguistic Discourse of Tabla Players". Careful, the examples of Abdul Sattar "Tari" and Yogesh Samsi are reversed.

Visit the Sadarang site's page on Punjabi tabla players.