The pre-eminent classical tabla virtuoso of our time, Zakir Hussain is appreciated both in the field of percussion and in the music world at large as an international phenomenon and one of the world’s most esteemed & influential musicians. The foremost disciple of his father, the legendary Ustad Allarakha, Zakir was a child prodigy who began his professional career at the age of 12, accompanying India’s greatest classical musicians & dancers. He was touring internationally with great success by the age of 18. His brilliant accompaniment, solo performance and genre-defying collaborations, including his pioneering work to develop a dialogue between North & South Indian musicians, have elevated the status of his instrument both in India and globally, bringing the tabla into a new dimension of renown and appreciation. Widely considered a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement, Zakir’s contribution has been unique, with many historic and groundbreaking collaborations, including Shakti, Remember Shakti, Masters of Percussion, Planet Drum & Global Drum Project with Mickey Hart, Tabla Beat Science, Sangam w/Charles Lloyd & Eric Harland, CrossCurrents with Dave Holland & Chris Potter, in trio with Béla Fleck & Edgar Meyer, and, most recently, with Herbie Hancock. As a composer, he has scored music for numerous feature films, major events & productions. He has composed 3 concertos, and his third, the first-ever concerto for tabla & orchestra, was premiered in India in September, 2015, by the Symphony Orchestra of India, premiered in Europe and the UK in 2016, and in the USA in April, 2017, by the National Symphony Orchestra at Kennedy Center. A now several time over Grammy award winner, Zakir is the recipient of countless awards and honors, including Padma Vibhushan, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the USA’s National Heritage Fellowship and Officier in France’s Order of Arts and Letters. Voted “Best Percussionist” by both the Downbeat Critics’ Poll & Modern Drummer’s Reader’s Poll over several years. Zakir has received several honorary doctorates and, in 2019, became a Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow, a rare lifetime distinction afforded to only 40 artists at a time by India’s reigning cultural institution. He is the 2022 Kyoto Prize laureate in Arts & Philosophy, awarded by the Inamori Foundation to “those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of mankind.” Zakir became the 1st musician from India to receive 3 Grammys at one time at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024, for Best Global Music Album, Best Global Music Performance & Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. As an educator, he conducts many workshops & lectures each year, has been in residence at Princeton University & Stanford University, and, in 2015, was appointed Regents Lecturer at UCBerkeley. His yearly workshop in the San Francisco Bay Area, conducted for the past 30 years, has become a widely anticipated event for performers and serious students of tabla. He is the founder and president of Moment Records, an independent record label presenting rare live concert recordings of Indian classical music & world music. Zakir was resident artistic director at SFJazz from 2013 until 2016, and was honored with SF Jazz’s Lifetime Achievement Award on January 18, 2017, in recognition of his “unparalleled contribution to the world of music”. There’s more but let’s keep it simple.
I had the honor of spending a little time talking with Master Zakir Hussain ahead of the TISRA event on March 16th at the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Shannon Hall. Zakir and I spent time discussing a few unique features of this event, including having a female artist, Debopriya Chatterjee on bansuri. Along with Sabir Khan on sarangi, we get into what the instruments represent and the types of sounds to be delivered through this trio. Zakir shared the story of his father whispering rhythms (prayers) into his ears at just days old as part of a tradition that certainly must have done some priming & shaping. We get deep into the story telling of both his foundational Indian classical traditional ways and the spirit of open collaboration with artists as varied as the world is wide. We get into the transmissions he got into with several fellow percussion/rhythm masters like Mickey Hart, Babatunde Olatunji, Airto Moreira and friend of the proGram, Sikiru Adepoju (I give Zakir a chance to talk praise of Sikiru as we did when I spoke to him about Zakir). Along the way – the importance of the relationship – the acceptance of instrument and player is walked through, and we touch on when/how that happened, with so much praise to his legendary father, Alla Rakha as his journey from a small handed on the outside looking boy into the wide minded, rhythm follower that this year alone, took home 3 Grammys. Reflections of this incredible accomplishment brought out his praise for his mentors/collaborators like John McLaughlin (Shakti) & Béla Fleck? Believe it our not, the music his father would bring home from the States played a huge role in this open to all sounds exploration, and one example consists of a dual cassette boombox and a cassette of the Doors. This is a full and rich conversation, I suspect he show will be as incredible as a journey as we find when just hearing Master Hussain share some tales. Enjoy it all.
