Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain, who was being treated for serious ailments in a San Francisco hospital in the US, has passed away. His family issued a statement today at 5 am confirming the news. The maestro was 73 years old.
The eldest son of Ustad Alla Rakha, who frequently accompanied sitar legend Ravi Shankar on the tabla, Zakir Hussain was one of the second-generation crossover Indian artistes whose play, sound, and stage presence were electric, and who was embraced as being part of world music from the start.
A huge talent, he was also at the right place at the right time; he was just 11 when he performed for the first time in the US.
In many interviews, he had talked about being an artiste at a time when the idea of mainstreaming and mixing Hindustani classical music with Western pop music was emerging. He first performed before an Indian audience in Thane.
He first performed before an Indian audience in Thane. For young people in the '90s, the fusion band Shakti was the first introduction to Zakir Hussain. Formed by English guitarist John McLaughlin, its members were L Shankar on the violin, percussionists were Zakir Hussain and Vikku Vinayakram.
Hussain’s appetite for performance continued till the last. In 2022, he had clocked more than 90 performances all over the world.
His tryst with the world of cinema, in English and Hindi, included such Merchant-Ivory films as Heat and Dust (1983), in which he, playing the gentle Inder Lal, romances Julie Christie. For Shashi Kapoor’s last film, In Custody (1993), another Merchant-Ivory production, he composed the soundtrack.
The tabla, however, was always his first love. When asked what his life would have been without it during a Doordarshan interview, he said the thought had never crossed his mind. “Tabla has been bhai (brother) and dost (friend).”
Young and restless—that has always been Zakir Hussain’s spirit. Even in 2024, he continued his association with young musicians, winning three Grammys, including one for Best Global Music Performance. The Punjab gharana, and India, has lost a beloved son.