“A fearsome technician but also a whimsical inventor,” The New York Times’ description of Zakir Hussain after one of his iconic Carnegie Hall performances in 2009 encapsulated the essence of his life and over 60 years of music.
Hussain – whose artistry as a tabla maestro, percussionist, composer, and even actor transcended boundaries of genres and geographies – died from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease, in a San Francisco hospital on December 15. He was 73.
His six decades of musical legacy began when he was 12. Born to tabla maestro and long-time accompanist of Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Alla Rakha, and his wife Bavi Begum in Mumbai, Hussain was a child prodigy. As a BBC report says, “The sound of the tabla was his first language, his earliest ‘words’.” Hussain received a payment of Rs 5 for his first concert in the presence of music stalwarts like Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Bismillah Khan, and Pandit Shanta Prasad.
From learning music in his family’s one-room apartment behind the Mahim Dargah, to his school days at St Michael’s School and graduation from St Xavier’s College, and later traveling across India by train, sometimes sleeping on the floor, his journey eventually led him to global fame.
The tabla maestro did several ground-breaking collaborations with domestic stalwarts such as Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, and Shivkumar Sharma and Western musicians like Yo-Yo Ma, Charles Lloyd, Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Mickey Hart, George Harrison, and the pop group Earth, Wind & Fire. Beyond a tabla player, Hussain was an ambassador of Indian classical music and culture.
Hussain even experimented with rock drumming at one point. As The Statesman reported, during an interview with The National, Hussain shared about revealing his interest in rock drumming to The Beatles’ lead guitarist George Harrison. The latter reportedly said, “You are here because you have something unique to offer. If you want to play drums, that’s fine. But then you will join the 5,000 other drummers who are waiting in line to play with me, and you will have to work your way up to get here.”
“Looking at it in retrospect, Hussain said, ‘That was the day I dropped the idea of wanting to be a rock drummer and focused on making my instrument speak all the languages of rhythm that exist on this planet. I can’t thank George enough for straightening me out.’”
At 22, Hussain met guitarist John Mclaughlin through the owner of a musical instrument shop in the US, as per an Indian Express report. In 1973, with McLaughlin, Hussain co-founded the Indo-jazz fusion band Shakti.
Over the next five decades, the group evolved and featured musicians such as violinist L Shankar, percussionist Vikku Vinayakram, and mandolin maestro U Srinivas.
In 1988, it was at a concert with Pandit Ravi Shankar in Mumbai that Hussain received the news of his Padma Shri award. Around 4 am, as Shankar announced the news, he also gave Hussain the honorific of Ustad – given to Muslim virtuosos of Hindustani classical music.
Hussain recalled the moment in an interaction with DD News, “When the Padma Shri award was announced for me, it was 4 am. Someone came with a newspaper. I was performing at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai with Pandit Ravishankar ji. My father, Ustad Allah Rakha, was also sitting in the front row.” He received the distinguished Padma Bhushan in 2002 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2023.
It was also a 1988 TV commercial for tea brand Taj Mahal that made Hussain a household name in India. The ad showed him immersed in Tabla riyaaz and later sipping tea as a voiceover complimented him, saying, “Waah Ustad, waah.” And Hussain replied, “Arre huzoor, waah Taj boliye! Wah Taj!” The maestro would later say in interviews that it “made me famous in India”.
Amid this, Hussain also began teaching music at the Ali Akbar College in San Francisco. He eventually became a visiting professor at Stanford University. The maestro also acted in movies such as Heat and Dust and Saaz in the 1980s and in the 2024 film The Monkey Man.
And while Shakti was a success, each musician had other commitments, and they toured “only at certain times of the year”. In an interview with Rolling Stones India, Hussain shared, “I was very focused on keeping my Indian classical life at the forefront. It was also helpful that Shakti did not tour India when it was first formed.”
But the group stopped playing in the mid-1980s and returned in 1997 as Remember Shakti, with flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and saxophonist Bendik Hofseth. Their album, Saturday Night In Bombay, became a hit.
In 2009, Hussain won his first Grammy in the Contemporary World Music Album category for Global Drum Project alongside Mickey Hart, Sikiru Adepoju and Giovanni Hidalgo.
After a long hiatus, Shakti again reunited in 2020 to release its first studio album in 46 years, This Moment. It won the Grammy in February this year. With this, Hussain became the first musician from India to receive three Grammys at once – for Best Global Music Album, Best Global Music Performance, and Best Contemporary Instrumental Album.
“I am overwhelmed and humbled by the outpouring of love, affection, and blessings for my multiple Grammy wins. It is impossible for me to individually respond to all of you, but be assured that you are all in my heart, and I’m bowing to each and every one of you in thanks. It was a great day for India at the Grammys, and I’m proud to be carrying the national flag,” Hussain wrote on his Instagram page at the time.
The maestro is survived by his wife Antonia Minnecola, their daughters Anisa and Isabella Qureshi, his brothers Fazal and Taufiq Qureshi, his sister Khurshid Aulia, and a musical legacy that will resonate for generations.
If you’re reading this story, you’re not seeing a single advertisement. That’s because Newslaundry powers ad-free journalism that’s truly in public interest. Support our work and subscribe today.
Newslaundry is a reader-supported, ad-free, independent news outlet based out of New Delhi. Support their journalism, here.
