‘There was so much music in him… changed the game’: fellow musicians remember Ustad Zakir Hussain | Arts and Culture News

Chaurasia, who collaborated with Guni, said Hussain was his mentor. “I used to call him Ustad, and he used to call me Zakir Bhai because he used to say, ‘I’m not that old and the closer we get, the more we feel like friends, and the more chemistry. It becomes clear between us, the music on stage. It will be good. There will be no obstacles between us,’ he said.

Hussain was instrumental in trying to get people from India to collaborate with people in the West, and helped Chaurasia meet American musicians Bela Fleck and Edgar Mayer (with whom Chaurasia and Hussain won two Grammy Awards for their 2023 album ‘As We Speak’).

Ustad Zakir Hussain with Pandit Ravi Shankar. (Express Archive)

Hailing him as an outstanding tabla player and global ambassador, Hussain’s long-time associate and tabla player Vikram Ghosh recalled, “When I was a child, we lived in the same house in San Rafael, America, and he used to babysit me. Throughout my life, he advised me, When I needed it, and when we met, there was beautiful banter and fun.”

Ghosh said that the qualities Hussain brought to playing the instrument in his early years and which he maintained till the end were nothing short of phenomenal. “He changed the game, so to speak. No one can claim that Zakir Hussain did not have an impact on the generations that came after him. Subjectively, he was a god. He was like my brother,” he said.

“He left too soon,” Ghosh said, “he had a lot left to give the world… His passing marks the end of a great era. He put tabla on the world map and did it with such élan.

Khusru N Suntuk, president of Mumbai’s National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA), said in Hussain’s death, “we have lost a universal musician and a good human being.”

“Not only did the legendary tabla maestro’s musicianship reign supreme in the Hindustani classical tradition, he was also a composer and collaborator, spreading the genres of Western classical, jazz and world music. Be it Shakti, popular bands or his recital where he sang the tabla, his musical language inspired the world. has spoken,” he said.

Ustad Zakir Hussain and flutist Rakesh Chaurasia. (Express Archive)

Hussain came to the NCPA with his father, Ustad Alla Rakha, since its inception in 1969, he said. In July 2015, Hussain became an honorary member of the NCPA Council and became a mentor and inspiration for future musicians, he said. “He upheld the true spirit of the Guru-Shishya tradition by sharing the stage with talented young artists year after year at the Adi Ananta Festival of Indian Music. He wrote inspiring compositions with deep messages of peace, harmony and universal brotherhood for the India Symphony Orchestra with which he toured the UK,” Suntuk said.

Senior composer and musicologist Dr Suvarnalata Rao, NCPA Indian Music Head, Hussain was a true legend whose contribution to the art of tabla will echo in history. A versatile maestro whose mastery elevated the craft to great heights, Dr Rao said, “Beyond his unparalleled skill, Zakirjee’s charisma and kindness left an indelible impression on all who had the privilege of working with him.”