Tony & Billa

Sitar, tabla and ragas at a masterful level — behind the English names Tony & Billa are two master musicians on the sitar and tabla, the two most iconic instruments of Indian classical music. Rather than updating the tradition with production tricks, they take an organic approach, condensing hour-long ragas into eight-minute performances without sacrificing depth, highlighting delicate glissandi and ornamental phrases as musical springboards. "Tony" Ashraf Sharif Khan comes from a musical lineage spanning nine generations in Lahore and trained in the Poonch gharana; "Billa" Shahbaz Hussain studied under masters of the Punjab gharana, the same lineage that produced Zakir Hussain of Shakti. Both hold the title Ustad, Pakistan's equivalent of Maestro, and have long been headline artists at Pakistan's classical music festivals.