Tony & Billa brings together two world-renowned maestros of their instruments, Ustad Ashraf Sharif Khan on Sitar, and Ustad Shahbaz Hussain on Tabla. In this project, they shed away their honorific titles and engage in risky improvisations, based on purely Raag based approaches to musical presentation. Pakistani musicians playing edgy ‘Indian Classical’. We just call it Raagdari.

Tony/Ashraf inherits a distinct, ninth-generation Sitar style from his ancestors, once court musicians of Poonch, in present day Kashmir, and his father, Ustad Sharif Khan. Billa/Shahbaz, was born in England but learnt from three of the most important Tabla players of the 20th century Punjab Gharana: Mian Shaukat Hussain, Ustad Allah Rakha Khan, and Ustad Fayaz Khan. They met in England in 2006, almost a decade after Tony had moved to Germany. This jori/pair, formed in Europe, matured during yearly visits to Pakistan, eventually becoming permanent and formidable headliners at the most prestigious classical music festivals in Pakistan. It was after the sound and expression we achieved at the APMC Karachi Festival in 2024, that we decided to reformulate this project as Tony & Billa, which will begin touring in Europe and UK, starting this summer. Their debut album is set to be released by honiunhoni in May 2026.