It isn’t typically {that a} percussionist finds life within the intricacies of punctuation. Its pauses largely stay the protect of literature.
Tabla virtuoso Ustad Zakir Hussain, whose tenacity went past the cadence, tone, tempo and inflection; whose eloquence in placing apostrophes, ellipses and exclamations within the mathematically labyrinthine tales, lifted the tabla – the modest paired drum set – and hoisted it as India’s flag for over half a century, handed away in San Francisco on Sunday as a consequence of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, his household confirmed in a press release. He had been hospitalised over two weeks in the past. He was 73.
Hussain survived by spouse and Kathak instructor Antonia Minnecola, daughters Isabella Qureshi, Anisa Qureshi, brothers and tabla gamers Fazal and Taufiq Qureshi and sister Khursheed Aulia. “His prolific work as a instructor, mentor and educator has left an indelible mark on numerous musicians. He hoped to encourage the following era to go additional. He leaves behind an unparalleled legacy as a cultural ambassador and one of many biggest musicians of all time,” his household mentioned in a press release.
Cultural ambassadors and musicians reminiscent of Hussain will not be straightforward to return by. It takes exhausting work, curiosity, expertise, innovation and one thing magical to make audacious trailblazers who’re additionally repositories of age-old philosophy and data. Which is why listening to Hussain’s music – be it on the uptown ticketed live shows or the others the place the entry was free and the aisles have been brimming with rasiks – lots and musicians who heard him collectively — or by way of his world collaboration that was Shakti and his in depth work with legends like George Harrison, John McLaughlin, and Grateful Lifeless’s Mickey Hart – the expertise all the time gave one a heightened sense of being, giving us a peek into his self actualisation. And, maybe ours.
He made it look easy – his fingers reaching dynamic peaks and valleys with dizzying complexity, these moments when the daanya (the left, smaller drum) would dominate the baanya with sounds one hadn’t heard on the tabla. After which there was the trademark head banging with these curly locks, going from devotional beats to rock-style rhythms in a jiffy. This glimpse of him, which one noticed in Desh Raag and Mile Certain mera tumhara – messages of unity in variety in pre-liberalised India; even in these Taj Mahal tea advertisements, was at full show in stay live shows from him in Indian winters, the one time California-based Hussain would now come down and do again to again reveals in cities large and small, the place individuals got here in droves to hearken to music that was an obeisance to a better energy, what he’d name “a hazri within the courtroom of music”.
A toddler prodigy, the story goes that when Hussain was born, his father and Punjab gharana tabla legend Ut Alla Rakha whispered tabla bols (syllables used to characterize the sounds of the instrument) in his son’s ears as an alternative of a prayer from the Quran. When his offended spouse requested him why, Alla Rakha’s reply was uncomplicated – tabla bols have been nearly as good as ibaadat for him.
Alla Rakha was a doting father however an exacting guru, who taught his eldest son with quite a lot of enthusiasm of their one-room residence behind the Mahim dargah. The coaching started at three – first as mathematical video games which later become subtle rhythm patterns and tales from life. Hussain blossomed. However he additionally yearned to do issues that different youngsters his age did. Like taking part in cricket, a sport his father banished after he virtually broke a finger when a ball hit it exhausting in the future. He was overwhelmed up, the one time ever, proper after. Riyaaz at 4 am for 3 hours earlier than going to a Catholic college was instantly plain crusing.
Along with his first live performance at seven, Hussain started touring at 12-13. When Alla Rakha was overseas, or his dates clashed, Hussain would accompany in his place. Whereas he saved performing with Hindustani classical musicians, together with his father’s contemporaries Pt Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan amongst others, he needed extra from life and music and moved to the US when he was 20. As soon as in San Francisco, he taught at Ali Akbar Faculty of Music and travelled for live shows. At 22, by way of the proprietor of a store for musical devices within the US, he met guitarist John Mclaughlin and co-founded Shakti in 1973, starting their musical lives amid disparate worlds of thought and creative sensibilities and landed on what the world would go on to name “world music”. Hussain composed for movies, acted in some, spoke impishly, performed live shows toured extensively and remained synonymous with the tabla discovering admiration and followers in India in addition to overseas. Whereas his father and his technical brilliance introduced out the tabla from the shadows of being a background accompanying instrument and gave it social stature like by no means earlier than, Hussain made it unambiguous, spontaneous and thrilling; glamorous even.
Over two years in the past, the poignant second when he performed pallbearer for santoor maestro Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma’s hearse three years in the past throughout COVID, his grief palpable on his masked face, was mentioned extensively on social media because the true instance of the “thought of India”. For Hussain, it was not as reductive in nature, however solely a gesture to mark the deep bond, musical and in any other case, the 2 had shared over time. “I feel individuals and politicians exist on two completely different planes… We are likely to generalise and in doing so, create the hazard of a much bigger schism than we really must. Not everybody of any sect is dangerous. That concept appears to have taken a backseat. What we have to do is simply be capable to hear regardless of the powers that be wish to inform us, however decide for ourselves as residents the place is it that we belong and what it’s that we want in our lives to make it higher. In all probability we’ll get there one among lately,” he advised this author as soon as.
A visiting professor at Stanford and Princeton, the multiple-Grammy successful Hussain was awarded the Padma Vibhushan final 12 months.
Within the final couple of many years, Hussain had extra reveals and collaborative initiatives lining up. His subsequent 12 months was already booked out because the information got here in. However in the entire tizzy of his busy touring life, when the sound of the tabla had develop into extra of a pleasure-seeking train than simply showing-off the technical prowess, the place new idioms have been being fashioned and the place the noble world of warning was thrown to the wind, and all that remained was a haze — authentic, thorough and the type that’s remembered for a lifetime.
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