Goodbye, Zakir ji. The pleasure was all ours

That is how Hussain’s friendships have at all times been. Lengthy, regular and enjoyable as a result of he at all times made an effort.

He was calling from his Napean Sea Highway dwelling in Mumbai, the place his mother and father had moved in 1970 after dwelling in a one-room residence behind the Mahim dargah for over 20 years. Each time Hussain returned to India from San Francisco, he stayed on the primary ground of Simla Home Cooperative Society — his dwelling of recollections and music with the ocean as witness; a house the place his mom Bavi Begum would get kam masale-wali biryani made for her eldest son whose now American palette couldn’t deal with spicy meals, the place his Abbaji, Ustad Allah Rakha, would typically stand close to the living-room window, doing taal riyaaz with him as his mom learn the newspaper (the second from the long-lasting Raghu Rai {photograph}) or the music room the place he’d undergo hours of apply till he was drenched in sweat.

I used to be fairly touched by the truth that amid his busy schedule, he’d made an effort to search out out from his secretary the place I used to be travelling. Thus, the Rajasthani salutation and dialog in regards to the conventional Rajasthani snack. Within the manic, self-obsessed world of music, it confirmed deep respect for one more one who was providing you with their time.

That is additionally in all probability why Hussain by no means took his viewers with no consideration. He discovered methods to attract them in and so they, in return, liked him again. Past the tabla, it was his persona that spoke essentially the most to me and possibly to many others.

Throughout a efficiency at Delhi’s FICCI auditorium on the event of Kathak exponent Pandit Birju Maharaj’s seventy fifth birthday, he mentioned, “Maharaj ji danced on my fourth birthday… Ab kyunki Maharaj ji aaj chaar saal ke ho gaye hain (Now that Maharaj ji has turned 4), I believed I also needs to pay him a tribute.” Simply when the laughter was settling in, Hussain started enjoying various rhythm constructions. What was fascinating was that he wasn’t constructing a sophisticated world of beats that meant nothing to untrained ears within the viewers. As an alternative, there was the sound of rain and thunder, Krishna being scolded by his beloved Radha for coming late, even the sound of a prepare. On different events, there was Ganesha’s conch shell alongside Shiva’s damaru. However at a tabla workshop or a session with different tabla gamers, it was about would pushing and difficult himself and arriving on the sam (first beat of the rhythm cycle) in various methods. Whereas accompanying artistes equivalent to Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pt Hari Prasad Chaurasia and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan amongst others, it was about surrendering to the artwork of sangat (accompaniment), carrying the music alongside and discovering methods to make the “predominant instrument” shine. It was uncanny the way in which Hussain may gauge the melodic motion and determine what was coming subsequent in ways in which many couldn’t. He was at all times on guard, like the primary day of unbiased driving, by no means dropping focus. “The day I begin to assume that I’ve it in me, is the day it’ll be the top of Zakir Hussain. Which is why it’s essential to stay a scholar, continue learning,” he informed me as soon as, whereas his fingers cajoled an invisible tabla. Or, when he informed a fellow journalist about how loads of occasions younger artistes can’t come up as a result of they are typically within the shadow of extra well-liked artistes; which is why he labored extensively with artistes he thought have been proficient. Musicians like Niladri Kumar, Purbayan Chatterjee, Rakesh Chaurasia, and Sabir Khan amongst others, consummate artistes in their very own proper, have been buoyed by the generosity and a focus of a musician equivalent to Hussain.

Amid so many artistes that I meet, most of whom need to inform me how nice they’re, and the brand new tasks they’re doing, there are solely a handful who nonetheless take a look at their work and discover methods to gaze inwards — that one phrase within the bandish, a selected tukda, perfecting and sharpening their talent in order that it sounds higher the subsequent time. In Zakir ji’s case, the beats have been at all times carried out with precision and fervour however they have been additionally stored in test by an assiduous technique of self-reflection. That’s what lifted him and the common-or-garden tabla to the realm of the extraordinary and stretched the potential of the world of music generally.

We didn’t communicate after this interview as a result of a disagreement over publishing an announcement he later determined ought to be off the report. I, in fact, stored attending his concert events. No disagreement was going to discourage me from listening to his music. I averted going backstage although, for a fast greeting, like I used to.

Each time I did so earlier, he would keep in mind and snort heartily in regards to the first time I did virtually 15 years in the past. Amid a mob at Delhi’s Kamani Auditorium, with folks asking for pictures and autographs after his live performance, there I used to be attempting to get an unique with one of many biggest musicians of our century. It was February 14 and I had not wished to be alone at my tiny residence. So, a day of music is what I deliberate for myself. I launched myself as the gang milled round and requested him if we may communicate for a second. “Sure, we will. However initially darling, completely satisfied Valentine’s Day,” mentioned Hussain with an enormous smile. I couldn’t cease my sheepish grin.

Final month, once I discovered that he’d be in India in January for a live performance with Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer, I requested his media firm to arrange a dialog with him; part of me wished to clear the air. His sudden dying, on the pinnacle of his profession, has been completely heartbreaking.

Nobody teaches you learn how to grieve for an artiste. One can desperately attempt to maintain on to the brilliance of his music, the charisma, the rigour and the genius, or the numerous recollections round him — the Taj Mahal advert; his vulnerability when he was the pallbearer for Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma’s hearse, holding on to the nationwide flag that wrapped him; the enjoyable he had with the brass band that was attempting to impress him with a jugalbandi throughout his daughter’s engagement. There’s a lot to be pleased about as Hussain departs and but it feels method too little. We would have liked extra of him and his music. Undoubtedly, he would have laughed on the fuss. He’d have mentioned, “That is music’s enchantment, not mine,” as he informed the BBC in 2016. The pleasure has at all times been ours.

suanshu.khurana@expressindia.com