Zakir Hussain, musician

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The sources of this article are…

Amita Nair, Ravikanth3 [1] <>- Amann Khuranaa ‘‘The Times of India’’

Grammy award/ nominations

1992: Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain's Planet Drum, an album he co-created and produced with Mickey Hart, was awarded a Grammy for Best World Music Album.

2009: Zakir Hussain won his second Grammy in the Contemporary World Music Album category for his collaborative album Global Drum Project along with Mickey Hart, Sikiru Adepoju and Giovanni Hidalgo.

2010: Zakir Hussain, who was nominated in 2010 in the Best Classical Crossover Album category for his album "The Melody of Rhythm", lost out to Yo-Yo Ma's "Songs Of Joy And Peace". The album featured artists like Leonard Slatkin, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer apart from Zakir Hussain. (India Glitz)

Biography

Zakir is the first name to strike your mind if one is talking about the tabla. The tabla maestro was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award in 2002 before a Grammy came in 2009 to approve of his talent on the world map. It was for Contemporary World Music Album ‘Global Drum Project’ on which he worked alongside Mickey Hart, Sikiru Adepoju & Giovanni Hidalgo. Having done musical concerts all around the globe, Zakir indeed is a master of percussion.


Legacy

Arjun Sengupta writes…

Arjun Sengupta, Dec 17, 2024: The Indian Express


Taking tabla to new heights

To truly appreciate Hussain’s legacy, one first needs to look at the history of the instrument with which he is synonymous. In his own words, “[the] tabla is one of the youngest instruments in the field of North Indian Classical music”. (Foreword to Sadanand Naimpalli’s Theory And Practice Of Tabla, 2005).

While precursors to what today is the percussion instrument of choice in Hindustani classical music date back to a couple of millenia ago, the tabla as we know it evolved till as recently as the early 19th century, according to the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol 5 — South Asia (1999). And till the 1950s, it was restricted to being merely an accompaniment in musical performances.

“Earlier tabla players were basically non-entities when it came to receiving any attention in a performance. Their names did not appear in ads, and LP and EP record covers did not list their names. When it came to their remuneration… it was a tenth of what the lead artist was paid… there was never any focus on tabla players as being an equally important part of a classical concert,” Hussain told his biographer Nasreen Munni Kabir. (Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music, 2018).

Zakir Hussain is often credited for elevating the status of the tabla. “He was a pathbreaker, a game-changer, an icon who put tabla and Indian music on the world map…,” Nayan Ghosh, who plays the sitar and tabla, told the BBC. Hussain, however, always credited the “big three” — Pandit Samta Prasad, Pandit Kishan Maharaj and his father Ustad Alla Rakha — for this feat. Although he undoubtedly popularised the tabla to what it is today, perhaps where his contribution is even more important is how he used the instrument in ways and contexts that were previously unimaginable.

Transcending styles, genres

“Beyond pure classical music, he experimented, dabbled in all kinds of fusion music… he was a great creator,” Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, a legendary tabla player in his own right and a close friend of Zakir Hussain, told The Indian Express.

Hussain was among the musicians to popularise “world music”, an eclectic coming together of musical traditions from around the world, most notably with his Grammy-winning band Shakti, where he partnered jazz guitarist John McLaughlin, violinist L Shankar, and ghatam maestro “Vikku” Vinayakram.

“Shakti is unique and unparalleled in the universe of music and it was probably the first group of its kind to have explored, without limit, the one salient feature that is common in Indian music and jazz — and that is improvisation…,” Hussain said in his biography.

Although recognised as a musical maverick by many, for Chaudhuri, Hussain “did not break any rules, so to say… He simply expanded the boundaries of music, and applied it such that he created his own style”.

That he did not break rules is hard to accept especially given that Hussain himself did not see things this way. “The most important fact was that we, the Shakti team, were young enough to allow for musical ‘sacrilege’, and so we could ignore the restrictions imposed on us by our respective traditions in the interest of finding a road towards oneness,” he said in his biography.

But such was Hussain’s credibility among connoisseurs that hardly anyone questioned the authenticity of his music. “He had immense respect for music, and other musicians, especially those older to him,” Chaudhuri said.

Hussain himself had always been certain that the path he was pioneering would be frequented by many in the future. “We were confident that our [Shakti’s] musical statement would become valid and accepted as a road to traverse and that would eventually lead to what is now known as world music,” he said.

Charismatic master of his craft

Speaking about Hussain’s unique style of playing the tabla, Chaudhari said that “while he belonged to the Punjab gharana [one of the six schools of tabla which boasts its own unique repertoire and style], he was trained by his father to play in all different gharanas’ styles… this helped him create his own style”.

In his biography, Hussain talked about how gharanas were limiting. “I often hear young tabla players tell me: ‘Should I be playing Punjab gharana? But this composition from this other gharana is so nice too.’ I tell them: ‘There’s no such thing as wrong, it’s just different. That’s all it is. Use it in your playing. Don’t think of it as wrong. If you do, you’re limiting your experience.’,” he said.

Chaudhuri also spoke about Hussain’s presentation. “To be a good musician, you have to know how to present to the audiences… to connect with them… [Hussain] was great at this. He was a communicator on stage, very jovial… but still respectful and serious about his music,” he said.

This kind of charisma made Hussain’s live performances memorable, allowing him to keep his audience transfixed for hours to the beat of his melodic drums. He could tell stories with the beats of his tabla, and sometimes, with the verbalisations of bols, the fundamental rhythmic syllable used in all tabla compositions.

Bringing life to this artistry was unparalleled technical mastery of his craft. The New York Times, in its review of a 2009 jazz performance at prestigious Carnegie Hall, wrote: “He’s a fearsome technician but also a whimsical inventor, devoted to exuberant play. So he rarely seems overbearing, even when the blur of his fingers rivals the beat of a hummingbird’s wings.”

Chaudhuri, who lives a couple of miles from Hussain’s residence in San Francisco, and used to frequently collaborate with the late musician, said that in all their years together, they never once rehearsed a performance. “We would just get on the stage… Hussain was among the very few tabla players who could adapt to any kind of style in just a couple of minutes,” Chaudhari said.

Such was Zakir Hussain’s mastery that his performances have often been referred to as “perfection”. But the maestro himself did not agree with this assessment, and that is not just because he was by all accounts a very humble man. As he put it in his biography, “I always say music dies each night and is reborn the next day. ‘Ek shamma jali, parwana uda, taiyyar hui, taiyyar hua.’ The parwana [moth] will burn, and yet it will be drawn to the flame again the next day. Perfection is something you’ll never attain. But it doesn’t matter if I don’t attain it, at least, I would have tried.”

Namita Devidayal writes…

Namita Devidayal, Dec 17, 2024: The Times of India


Artistes young and old describe Zakir Hussain as perfection personified — both man and musician. The sitar maestro Vilayat Khan once said, “Allah ne Zakir ko bahut sukoon se banaya hai (God made Zakir in a state of complete peacefulness).”


What young sarangi player Sabir Khan — who was touring with the tabla legend until only a few months ago — has to say, gives us a glimpse of Zakir the man. “If Zakir was travelling business class, he would come and check on me in the back of the plane. And if my instrument was with me he would carry it to his seat where there was more leg room,” he said. “When he came home to Simla House in Malabar Hill, he always asked me to come with my family for a hearty potluck meal.”


While Hindustani classical music remained his fulcrum for performance and teaching, Zakir played in diverse genres and styles. In 1974, he launched the ground-breaking fusion band Shakti along with British guitar player John McLaughlin, ghatam star Vikku Vinayakram and violinist L Shankar. Shakti held its 50th year reunion performance in Mumbai and Delhi just last year. 


His collaborative world music won him a Grammy in 2009 for the Global Drum Project with Mickey Hart and Giovanni Hidalgo. He has since been awarded seven Grammy nominations and won four times — three in one single night earlier this year — and was the recipient of the usual galaxy of govt awards in India.


Endlessly creative, Zakir also composed music for films. He was associate music director of Merchant-Ivory’s tempestuous Raj romance ‘Heat and Dust’ (1983) — in which he also acted, paired with Julie Christie. In an honest self-appraisal of his performance, he said in a 1997 interview to TOI, “I saw myself in ‘Heat and Dust’ and decided I was no good. I just didn’t have it in me to be an actor. I decided that I was definitely a far better musician and should concentrate my energies in that area.” He composed the score to many movies, including Pamela Rooks’ ‘Miss Beatty’s Children’ (1992), Ismail Merchant’s ‘In Custody’ (1994) and ‘The Mystic Masseur’ (2001), Aparna Sen’s ‘Mr and Mrs Iyer’ (2002) and Rahul Dholakia’s ‘Parzania’ (2005). As music director for Sai Paranjape’s ‘Saaz’ (1997), one of his tunes, “Kya tumne hai keh diya” (sung by Kavita Krishnamurthy), was acclaimed for its hip blend of Indian classical with Western. He also acted in the movie about two competitive singing sisters. 
A few years ago, he wrote two compositions for the Symphony Orchestra of India — commissioned by Mumbai’s NCPA (National Centre for the Performing Arts) — Peshkar and Triple Concerto for the sitar, flute and tabla. “These compositions carried a profound message of peace, harmony and universal brotherhood which he took to the UK with the orchestra,” says Khushroo Suntook, chairman of the NCPA. “Those concerts, his mentorship, warm presence and the sound of his tabla will forever remain a treasured memory.”


Although he virtually lived on an airplane, Zakir’s base was in San Francisco, where he lived with his wife Antonia Minnecola, a Kathak dancer who also became his manager. They have two daughters, Anisa Qureshi, a filmmaker, and Isabella Qureshi, a dancer. He is also survived by two brothers, Taufiq Qureshi and Fazal Qureshi, both well-regarded musicians, and sister Khurshid Aulia.


Zakir was not only an indefatigable performer, but also a teacher who touched many musical aspirants across the globe. He taught at Princeton University, where he was named Old Dominion Fellow by the Humanities Council, and was a visiting professor at Stanford. He was also a lecturer at UC Berkeley. His annual workshop in the Bay Area became a widely anticipated event for musicians. Mumbai University gave him an honorary doctor of law degree for his contribution to music.


Even those who are tone deaf will remember him due to the wildly popular advertisement campaign for Taj Mahal tea. “Arre huzoor, ‘Wah Taj’ boliye,” remains an iconic line that came from this jewel in India’s crown.


With inputs from Avijit Ghosh

HIS LIFE AND TIMES

Dec 17, 2024: The Times of India


A FAKIR NAMED HIM

➤ Eldest son of legendary percussionist Ustad Allarakha and his wife Bavi Begum. Siblings Taufiq and Fazal are also musicians. Their sister is Khurshid Aulia


➤ Though family name was Qureshi, he was named Zakir Hussain on the advice of a fakir


➤ Studied at St Michael’s School, Mahim


➤ Married to dancer Antonia Minnecola, has two daughters Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi 


PLAYED FIRST CONCERT AT 7


➤ Zakir trained under his father, who was a student of Mian Qadir Baksh, and gave his first public concert when he was 7


➤ Became a sought-after accompanist for legends of Indian classical music and dance


➤ Moved to San Francisco and taught at Ali Akbar Khan’s music college in San Rafael and was his accompanist


➤ Was professor of music at Princeton, University of Washington. Was visiting professor at Stanford


WAS VOTED ‘SEXIEST MAN’

➤ His wife, Antonia Minnecola, was a disciple of Kathak guru Sitara Devi for decades


➤ Antonia first met Zakir in 1971. They married in 1978. They had three marriage ceremonies: a civil wedding, a church wedding, and a nikah at which Ravi Shankar gave the bride away


➤ Was voted “sexiest man” by women readers of ‘Gentleman’ magazine in 1994. Contest featured the likes of Amitabh Bachchan 


COLLABORATED WITH LEGENDS

➤ Was part of the famous fusion quartet Shakti along with John McLaughlin, Vikku Vinayakram and L Shankar in the 1970s


➤ Played on ex-Beatle George Harrison’s 1973 album, ‘Living in the Material World’, Van Morrison’s ‘Into the Music’ (1979), and Earth Wind & Fire’s ‘Powerlight’ (1983)


➤ Worked with Mickey Hart of Grateful Dead on album ‘Planet Drum’, featuring percussionists from all over the world. It won the 1992 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album, the first Grammy in the category 


ACTED IN FILMS, GAVE MUSIC


➤ Auditioned for part of young Prince Salim in K Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam. Role went to Jalal Agha eventually. Allarakha did not want Zakir to act in films. But Zakir later featured in Merchant Ivory’s ‘Heat and Dust’ and Sai Paranjape’s ‘Saaz’


➤ A young Zakir had played tabla in mid-1960s as a sessions artiste for film composers, including Madan Mohan and SD Burman


➤ He later scored soundtrack for movies like ‘In Custody’ and ‘The Mystic Masseur’ by Ismail Merchant, and ‘Mr and Mrs Iyer’, and ‘Vanaprastham’


➤ Played tabla on soundtrack of Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ and Bernardo Bertolucci’s ‘Little Buddha’


Zakir Hussain recalls

A

Dec 17, 2024: The Times of India

‘Launch pad was ready for someone like me to take tabla to next level’


His ‘Twin’


I found my ‘twin’ when I was a few days old. My father picked me up and instead of whispering the customary holy words, whispered the ‘bols’ of the tabla in my ear. I bonded with it night after night as a toddler when my father would return home from his concerts at 3 am and wake me up for three straight hours of practice. Even today when I return home from a show and have a tough day ahead, I reach for my instruments immediately.


Classical Commitment


My interaction with musicians from other parts of the world gets a lot of attention and creates an assumption that the music thus created is classical music. This is wrong. Though the source is traditional, it is a misconception to view fusion attempts by Indian artistes as traditional music... to avoid this misconception, I make sure that at least 70% of my shows every year are classical concerts.


Educated Elite


If you aren’t educated enough to be able to talk to a roomful of the elite you aren’t respected, whether you are a talented musician or not. As a young man, I used to be made to eat in the kitchen while all the invited guests ate at the table. It was only when they finished that I would be summoned to come and play for them. The educated elite will acknowledge that you have a special talent by asking you to play for them but they will not give you due respect if you cannot out-talk them in all areas, including string theory.


Magic Fingers


When I started playing concerts, the idea of exploring the instrument — of discovering various parts of the skin of the tabla, the right corner, the left corner, the centre, using the middle finger, the pinkie, the thumb, or just the palm, discovering how the tones change; and what kind of harmonics they suggest — all that was not part of my performance until I got talking to an extraordinary Latin jazz percussionist of Afro-Cuban tradition called Armando Peraza... [I told him] ‘Wow! You play all those rhythms and a melody on your drums’. He said: ‘Melody? I am not playing a melody. No, I’m just talking.’ It sparked this whole new idea in my head, to take my tabla and somehow extract that kind of information and perform it for the audience. It was an incredible revelation. 
(From, ‘Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music, — in conversation with Nasreen Munni Kabir’)


Global Instrument


Tabla has risen to that status where it is recognised as a rhythm instrument. It is not just an Indian instrument anymore. The job to get it to this kind of acceptance worldwide started with my father when him and Ravi Shankar travelled all over the world and played concerts everywhere, Woodstock and whatnot... But one tabla player cannot make it a household name. It has to be a collective effort. And so there were all these incredible musicians like Kanai Dutta, Shankar Ghosh, Ustad Ahmed Jan Khan ‘Thirakwa’, Kishan Maharaj, Samta Prasad who strengthened the belief that it is one of the premier percussion instruments in the world. The launching pad was already assembled and primed for someone like me to take the tabla to the next level.


Tabla’s Evolution


The core has not changed but the presentation of it, the language spoken through it has become more of the present time... And that’s entirely due to the fantastic lineup of young musicians, which makes me think that our bench-strength in Indian music is almost as good as the bench-strength of the Indian cricket team.


On His Father


My father was a very understated kind of guy. I remember playing many concerts with him and he would come home and tell my mother, ‘aaj tumhare ladke ne thik bajaya’. He always said, “Son, try to be a good student, don’t try to be a master.”

B

Dec 17, 2024: The Times of India


"We kind of grew up together from our late teens and played together — even before we made our name with Shakti — in many classical concerts… He used to teach at Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s music college in San Francisco at the beginning of Shakti. I invited Vikkuji (Vikku Vinayakram), so Zakir and Vikkuji stayed at a very nearby apartment… Before we went on the road, the first two months were all rehearsals, collaborating, and making arrangements. So many times he’s driven us around. Like even to our classical concerts. 


— L SHANKAR


"My first encounter with Zakir bhai was as an awestruck fan, watching him perform solo at college festivals like Xavier’s. Back then, my connection to him was through his brothers... Then one day, he heard me sing and said, “Come to the studio tomorrow, I’m doing a recording for a film.” That’s how it started… He would often sit on stage as just another accompanist, making sure the spotlight was on someone else… When we toured, we were constantly laughing—those long hours together in airport lounges, buses, or long flights were just full of laughs with him always cracking us up with jokes, especially about himself. 


— SHANKAR MAHADEVAN


The King, in whose hands, Rhythm became Magic, has left us… RIP my dear Zakir, we will meet again.


— JOHN MCLAUGHLIN ON X

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