*Family issue notice of special prayer meet in Mumbai for December 27 (see poster below)
* Press Trust of India agency report that funeral will take place in San Francisco today, cite anonymous family source…
Many continue to mourn the loss of one of Indian music’s greatest ambassadors… from his group colleagues to British musicians he encouraged…
HE WAS an artist who inspired admiration, devotion and love.
Zakir Hussain was simply a great artist and if you read the many, many tributes following his passing on Sunday (December 15) in San Fransisco, you can see why he touched so many people, not just with his music but his warm, humorous and unaffecting personality.
They called him the tabla maestro “with the dancing fingers” – on Monday (December 16), India’s Prime Minister was moved to acknowledge his immense contribution and legacy to Indian classical music – saying he had “revolutionarised” the form, taking the tabla to the “global stage” and “becoming an icon of cultural unity”, blending Indian musical traditions with global music and producing work of both joy and power.
The son of legendary tabla player Ustad Alla Rakha Saheb*, Ustad* Zakir Hussin was the eldest son and took after his father, becoming a child prodigy and performing professionally at the age of 12.
By 18, his name as an accompanying musician first and then as a soloist, began to grow and increasingly he was working with musicians from different genres, having in some ways mastered his own.
He won Four Grammy Awards in all – with three just earlier this year itself – these were for Best Global Music Performance for ‘Pashto’ and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album for ‘As We Speak’. On both these Indian flautist Rakesh Chaurasia also played.
He also won Best Global Music Album at the Grammy this year for the group Shakti, and its album, ‘This Moment’. His first Grammy was in 2010 as part of a collection of artists who played for celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma in his ‘Yo-Yo Ma & Friends: Songs of Joy and Peace’ winning in the Best Classical Album in the Crossover category.
In 1973, he had co-founded the fusion group Shakti, along with guitarist John McLaughlin, violin player L Shankar, and TH Vikku Vinayakram on ghatam – each representing different musical traditions from jazz, Hindustani classical (from the north of India) to Carnatic (from the south of India).
It was in the 1970s that he also relocated from Mumbai to the US where he was to marry and have two daughters.
Ustad Zakir Hussain relationship’s to his instrument – the tabla – was very special and venerated.
He thought of it as having a personality and his relationship with it set the tone for his day.
In one press meet in India, he considered: “Me and my tabla have been mates since I was a little baby. This is work for me, it’s play, it’s a lot of fun. And it’s the best play I can be in,” he said, as reported by News18 in 2019.
He also told the assembled journalists it was the greatest toy available to him. “It’s a friend, it’s a lover, a sister, a brother, it’s everything – and that relationship has only, in some ways, deepened.”
There is a famous story of how his father whispered tabla rhythms to the baby Zakir and set him on a path which led him to being the greatest tabla player of his generation.
He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award – India’s highest award for artists. Ustad Zakir Hussain was also awarded a Padma Vibushan, India’s second highest civilian award.
Jay Visvadeva, a leading UK music producer and who knew Ustad Zakir Hussain personally and first met him as a teenager himself in the 1970s, when he visited London during the long running Sanskritik Festival of Arts of India, held at the Southbank Centre in London (1970-1988) – and then supporting Ustad Zakir Hussain’s tours of the UK and Europe, was heartbroken when www.asianculturevulture.com spoke to him.
“He was a genius,” reflected Visvadeva, who now runs Sama Arts and is a founding member of Navras Records.
“He was a phenomenal artist and inspired a new generation and brought an even greater appreciation of the tabla and opened the way for so many collaborations and creative expressions which took Indian classical music into new areas and new directions.
“He was also so self-effacing, funny and had no ego, and was easy to talk to, open and approachable – he was a great ambassador not just for Indian music but for Indian culture too.”
Rakesh Charauasia, the flautist who played with Ustad Hussain on his Grammy Award winning tracks, said it was hard for him to imagine a world without the tabla maestro.
He told one media outlet that the ‘Alphabet of Tabla’, began with A for Alla Rakha and ended with Z for Zakir.
“I think everybody in the music fraternity calls him the god of tabla. A blessing from him was more than enough and he used to bless everyone from his heart.”
Shankar Mahadevan is a singer and composer and joined Shakti for its last album and was part of the band that performed with Ustad Zakir Hussain at Hammersmith (Eventim Appollo) in June 2023.
He told a news outlet that Ustad Hussain was “the greatest in the world” and called him his “biggest inspiration”. He went onto express the common idea that there is no one like him – and his range, repertoire and reputation – are unlikely to be matched.
“Either there will be knowledge or expertise…it is impossible for an artist to be born of this calibre or to have knowledge, expertise and stage presence. Tabla is never going sound like this ever again,” declared Mahadevan.
McLaughlin, a legend of the guitar in his own right, and another member of Shakti, posted on the social media platform X : “The King, in whose hands, Rhythm became Magic, has left us…RIP dear Zakir, we will meet again.”
Among those others also paying tribute, in Britain, are a string of award winning and brilliant musicians – who had all come under his influence.
Talvin Singh OBE, Mercury Award winning tabla player and music composer, posted a long tribute on his X feed.
Dubbing him “the torchbearer and crowned Khalifa of our Punjab gharana** of Tabla, and yet one of the most expansive forward-thinking musicians of our time”, Singh recalled, posting a photograph taken in 2010 of meeting Ustad Zakir Hussain in San Francisco, when the British tabla virtuoso was on tour there.
Talvin Singh commented: “Ustad’s personality was so unique and remarkable!” And went to add that the older tabla maestro had a “charming sophistication” and witty humour and was very charismatic. “He was always so much in the moment and therefore had the most incredible memory of each and every moment – just like the sublime music”, ending his post: “My humble gratitude for all the supreme inspiration he has showered on all of us. My deep condolences to the Hussain family 🙏🏽 RIP”.
Anouskha Shankar, who followed in the footsteps of her illustrious father, Pandit* Ravi Shankar in playing the sitar and taking it to the world, was similarly emotional on the news. Ustad Zakir Hussain’s father Alla Raka Saheb often accompanied Pandit Ravi Shankar at concerts. In her tribute post, there are two videos/Reels.
Like Ustad Zakir Hussain, Anoushka Shankar started performing at a young age, sharing a stage with her father too.
“He (Ustad Hussain) was so supportive, I can’t explain,” she said of a video in which she is 16.
“At my first show at thirteen, I wanted to back out from fear of performing alongside him in front of thousands and it was him, his advice, his reminiscing about being in the same position at a similar age, his tight focus on me as we played, that got me through it.”
She, too like many, said he was incomparable.
“He was utterly unique in the world of music, I don’t have the words to describe that. You know. There are no words for this loss. Tony, Anisa, Bella, Taylor, Zara, we love you so much.”
Nitin Sawhney CBE, is one of the UK’s most versatile and respected musicians and said he was in deep sorrow.
“I was so privileged to meet and speak (with him, Ustad Zakir Hussain) on numerous occasions. He dazzled me as a teenager and inspired me throughout my adulthood.”
Posting to X, he ended: “Some geniuses become musical greats and others transcend the limitations of their instrument to redefine the potential of music itself. That is just one part of his legacy. #RIPHussain.”
Pianist Rekesh Chauhan met the maestro on many of his visits to the UK, calling him “one in million” and said Ustad Zakir Hussain’s “musical genius was admired by many musicians and listeners throughout the world – it is terribly sad to hear of his passing… Zakir ji had taken the sounds of the tabla to each corner of the globe.”
Ustad Zakir Hussain also composed for film on occasions and most recently for British star Dev Patel’s ‘Monkey Man’ (2023) – making a cameo appearance in the film itself and a clip of this going viral.
Another filmmaker he worked on with was India’s Nandita Das – whose ‘Manto’ (2018) about the celebrated Urdu writer (Saadat Hasan Manto) she made a film a biopic, and Ustad Zakir Hussain made some of the music for the film.
In her tribute on X, Das posted 13 pictures in all and the sound on the post is of the maestro’s ‘Teentaal’. Many of the pictures are of her with Ustad Zakir Hussain and team Manto with the maestro also – including Nawazuddin Siddiqui who played the lead part of the writer in the film.
Das remarked that Ustad Hussain’s passing was “unreal” and she spoke for many describing his passing as “an irreplaceable loss” and that “he would be missed and how. You went too soon”.
She finally noted: “Ustad Zakir Hussain will live on forever through his unparalleled music and memory of that infectious laugh that lit up our world.”
Zakir Hussain Allrakha Qureshi born March 9 1951 (Mumbai) – December 15 2024 (San Francisco), tabla musician and composer leaves behind a wife, Antonio Minnecola and daughters, Anisha and Isabella. He was the eldest child of Alla Rakha Saheb and also leaves behind two sisters and two brothers – one sister, Razia, predeceased him.
*Terms of veneration, used for musicians of a very high standing ** gharana is school of music
Main picture: Courtesy of Sama Arts (Jay Visvadeva)
Sailesh Ram, editor of acv writes – Going to the Shakti concert was hugely thrilling, as I had wanted to hear Ustad Zakir Hussainji live for many, many years but for one reason and another, it never quite happened, until that June 2023 Shakti performance at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, London. Of course, now, it assumes an even more special place in my memory – it was a wonderful evening and inspiring in so many ways. There is something very primeval about banging a drum and the tabla has a special resonance of its own…it is a like a rhythm that is almost hardwired into our souls and it has an ineluctably Indian sound – but also at the same time, Ustad Zakir Hussainji undeniably helped to take it outside of its geographical confines and ‘made’ it into a world instrument – without losing its essence or sense of historical tradition and in turn, paying respect and honouring the culture from which it sprang – open, energetic, spiritual, welcoming and calming – it could be whatever you want it to be. With deep condolences to all his family and friends and to his many admirers and listeners – his shining and glorious light can always be ‘heard’. He has moved on (as we all must) but the music lives…
