Jason Fellin

Jason's passion and love of music began at an early age. His path to discovering tabla was somewhat long however. As a boy he was constantly singing and dancing through his youth while driving his parents crazy incessantly tapping on tables, walls, and desks.

During his primary and secondary school years he played clarinet in the band and studied guitar privately throughout high school. It wasn't until college that he discovered his true passion, percussion instruments. Beginning in the mid 90's he started studying Afro-Cuban, African, and Middle Eastern instruments.

While being curious about tabla, the opportunity didn't arise until 1998 when he met the extremely talented young player named Vishal Nagar. Jason was living in Seattle, WA at the time where Vishal had begun making regular trips during the summer with his mother the renowned Kathak dancer Urmila Nagar, to teach and play. This is where Jason's training began. Every summer he would take two to three lessons a week with Vishal getting more entranced by the instrument and the music every day.

After three summers Vishal invited him to New Delhi, India to study intensively for six months. In late October of 2001, Jason embarked on the most challenging and rewarding journey of his life. In India he was practicing 8 to 10 hours a day under the close guidance of Vishal. It was this experience that cemented tabla is his life forever. Since returning from India he began teaching tabla lessons and playing with local musicians in the Seattle Area. He also designed and taught classes about tabla and Hindustani(North Indian) music in local community colleges.

In October of 2004 he decided to make a move from his long time home to Boulder, Colorado. There he has begun teaching private lessons and getting involved in the local music community.

Check out his website at www.tablaemotion.com

Blair Miller

Blair was first turned on to tabla by listening to the 1974 Diga Rhythm Band CD.

Blair lugged his first set of tablas from Benares to Delhi on an overnight train (with no reserved ticket) in December of 1997. He would like to think his commitment to the instrument has not wavered since.

In 1998 he started to study in Vancouver, B.C with Stefan Cihelka-a student of Zakir Hussain. Since moving to Seattle in 2001, he has studied with Tor Dietrichson (of Diga fame), and in the summer of 2002 started taking lessons with Vishal. He also studied with Vishal for 3 months in the winter of 2003-4. He currently calls Seattle home.

If you would like to see a list of some sound and video clips of Blair playing, click here.

Blair Miller is also the webmaster of pacifictabla.com, so you can blame him for all the broken links!

Bill Moyer

Bill Moyer is a percussionist, educator, and composer. Bill has traveled to India twice to study tabla with masters Akram Khan and Vishal Nagar. He studies and teaches Afro-Cuban drumming, as well as many other forms. He has performed and recorded with the ensembles Ota Prota and Land, Ela Lamblin Amy Denio and others. He directs the Vashon Youth Percussion Ensemble, teaches for Arts Corps, and has developed a math and music curriculum and software. His sound designs for UMO Ensemble include: Cities, Conversations in the Court of Khan, Millennium Circus, and Body Inheritance. Bill spent two weeks at Harborview hospital in 1992 with a spinal chord injury. Bill lives on Vashon Island with his true love Esther, his daughter Aziza, and their 'over-retrieving' dog, Mitha.

Brian Green

Brian has been studying tabla under Vishal's guidance since 1999. He spent several months training with Vishal in India during the winter of 2001-02, and again the following winter. Currently he is studying the repertoire and improvisational styles of the Delhi Gharana, as well as the tabla of Thirakwa Khan Saheb.

He's also the webmaster of vishalnagar.com

Chris Grantham

Chris Grantham has been an avid listener of North India music since high school in the late 80's, when WNYC's John Schaeffer broadcasted New Sounds, a radio show highlighting a variety of experimental, new age, electronic, and world musics. Seeing his first live performance in 1988, Ravi and Shubho Shankar with Kumar Bose at Rochester's Eastman Theatre, his interest followed him west to Seattle, where his musical appetites were amply rewarded by the diverse city.

Chris started his tabla training in group classes with Tor Dietrichson through the UW Experimental College in 1994, continuing with more group classes offered locally by Zakir Hussain and the UW Ethnomusicology Department's artist-in-residence Akram Khan. In 2000, he started his training with Vishal Nagar, his current guru, and was invited to continue his training in India, staying with Guru-ji Vishal and his family for more than 4 months in early 2001. He has performed live with Spirit House and Arjun Spinner and can be heard on Freedom Tribe's debut album, Calling.

Gordon Assadi

Gordon got interested in tabla in 1997 after hearing a recording of Zakir Hussain. He sought out Tor Dietrichson who introduced him to the basic concepts and compositions of the tabla (Tor worked with Zakir in the 70's). Tor then introduced his students to Vishal Nagar, and Gordon has been studying with him since that time. Although he studies classical Delhi style, Gordon's main interest and focus is on folk beats. So with Vishal he studies, bhajan, ghazal, keherawa, laggis...

Gordon is also a member of the musical duo Bhakti(pictured), voice and tabla. Working with Mahria Potter, who sings in Sanskrit and Bengali, they create original music with its roots firmly planted in the Indian folk traditions. They released their first CD titled "Vraja" in late 2002.

James Whetzel

James Whetzel’s music ranges from the sound of West African palm-wine guitar, to Indian/Pakistani sarode and tabla, from throat singing, to darbouka. His sonic palette includes rock, hip hop, and ambient music, and special Whetzel-style beats that combine rhythmic sounds from Africa and South Asia.

A versatile performer, composer, producer, and recording engineer, James performs solo and in ensemble. In his solo shows James sings and performs on palm-wine guitar, and plays sarode and does throat singing over specially composed Whetzel beats. Artists such as Andrew Carras, Lowell Lybarger, Vishal Nagar, Akoma Ensemble, Yaw Amponsah, Subatomic Sound System, and Planet Beat Sound System are some of his regular collaborators.

James was first introduced to tabla in 1993 when he took classes given by Arjara gharana tabla maestro Akram Khan. He continued studying with Lowell Lybarger, an ethnomusicologist specializing in the study of tabla and a student of Ustad Shaukat Hussain Khan. James started taking lessons from Vishal Nagar in 1997, later performing with Urmila Nagar and Vishal Nagar in the ensemble Awaz, where he did throat singing, and sarode accompaniment. In 2000 James performed with Awaz at the Seattle International Children’s Festival.

He studied West African Palm-Wine style guitar music first with the late great Nigerian Juju artist I. K. Dairo MBE and then with Daniel Amponsah aka Koo Nimo. James took vocal lessons in Hindustani Classical music from Urmila Nagar. He has also taken sarode and Hindustani vocal music lessons at the Ali Akbar Khan College of Music in San Rafael, California, and has received private lessons in sarode from Bruce Hamm. James studied darbouka in Morocco in 1994 with Ustad Larabi Aguinnou Harriri, and has also taken private lessons with UK based percussionist Salah Dawson Miller. He took throat singing lessons from Genla Kelak Persang Lama.

His recordings include Sum and Capitol Hill: Secret Tracks, the latter of which features Vishal Nagar performing on tabla.

Larry Mahlis

Larry Mahlis is a Greek-American percussionist-drummer who has been performing professionally since the age of 15. He has appeared on numerous recordings in addition to film and TV soundtrack work. He draws on his knowledge and playing experience of a wide variety of music along with his Greek roots and early exposure to Byzantine music to create his unique rhythmic and textural soundscape.

Larry studied Frame Drums briefly from master percussionist Glen Velez, Drum set from Ricky Sebastian, and is currently studying Tabla from Tabla virtuoso Vishal Nagar.

He has worked with artists as varied as El Vez, Utah Symphony Orchestra, Gary Stroutsos, Jovino Santos-Neto, Dimitris Mahlis, Shaffquat Ali Khan, Shabbaz, John Serrie and Gene Tagaban. He is featured on Gary Stroutsos' recording "Pacific Moon" and on the cd "Hidden World" that features Gary Stroutsos and John Serrie.

Along with a busy performing schedule, he is currently on staff at the Seattle Drum School, and is a sought after instructor of Drum-Energy-Healing workshops.

Tom Fallat

Tom Fallat is the owner of Sound Sound Studios. He is a producer, engineer, composer, arranger and percussionist. Tom is also the president of the arts organization Alpha Tango. Tom has had the honor of recording and producing hundreds of artists over the last twelve years. He first met his tabla teacher, Vishal Nagar, while producing a CD at Sound Sound several years ago.

Tom first became interested in tabla in the sixties, hearing Alla Rahka perform with Ravi Shankar. He has been studying with Vishal since 1999. He first performed on tabla in public with Kabir on New Year’s Day 2002, and performs on tabla and dumbek with kirtan groups at Samarya Center and the Ashtanga Yoga School in Seattle. He performed at the birthday celebration of Sri K Pattabhi Jois, the founder of Ashtanga yoga in 2002. Tom was music director/performer in a yoga series organized by Heather Williams at Body Alchemy, Seattle, playing tabla, harmonium, synthesizer and singing. He has also played tabla with James Whetzel and live DJs at TosT in Seattle.

In addition to tabla and singing, Tom plays keyboards, mallets, tympani, Indonesian gamelan instruments, and drumset. He has played in concert bands, orchestras, gamelan orchestras, experimental performances of many types and has composed and directed numerous full evening performances. He has especially enjoyed creating music for dance, multimedia, and film, including the feature length film Spree by director Rustin Thompson, which has been shown in over 21 countries.

Tom’s CD Under the Bimba Blossoms based on Gita Govinda by 12th century Sanskrit poet Jayadeva, is a collaboration with vocalist and dancer Heidi Drucker. It features numerous musicians including Vishal Nagar on tabla and Tom on percussion and vocals. This CD will be available in the fall of 2003. Tom played tabla and Middle Eastern percussion on a film score for a soon to be released film about peacekeepers in Palestine, produced by John J. Michalczyk of Boston College. At Vishal’s request, Tom is currently composing a number of pieces for Vishal and small ensemble, to be recorded for CD release.

Tom sometimes plays “tita” with the ring and middle finger instead of the conventional middle and index finger, which Vishal says sounds good.

For a list of recordings and projects, go to soundsound.com