‘There was so much music in him… changed the game’: Fellow musicians recall Ustad Zakir Hussain

Chaurasia, who collaborated with the virtuoso, said Hussain became his mentor. “I used to call him Ustad, and he would ask me to call him Zakir bhai because he would say, ‘I’m not so old and the more we get closer, the more we will feel like friends, and the more the chemistry between us will become clear, the more it would be musically good on stage. There will be no barrier between us’,” he said.

Hussain was instrumental in trying to get people from India to collaborate with those from the West, and helped Chaurasia meet American musicians Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer (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 one of the greatest tabla players and a global ambassador, Hussain’s long-time collaborator and table player Bickram Ghosh remembered, “When I was a kid, we lived in the same house in San Rafael, America, and he would babysit me. Throughout my life, he gave me advice, when I needed it, and whenever we met, there was beautiful banter and fun.”

Ghosh noted that it was nothing short of phenomenal the quality that Hussain brought to playing the instrument in his very early years and which he sustained right until the end. “He changed the game, so to say. In the generations who came after him, nobody can claim they do not have a Zakir Hussain influence. In the subject, he was a god. He was like my elder brother,” he said.

“He went so early,” said Ghosh, adding, “he had so much left to give to the world… His passing marks the end of a great era. He put tabla on the global map and did it with such elan.”

Khushroo N Suntook, Chairman, National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, said that in the demise of Hussain, “we have lost a universal musician and a fine human being.”

“Not only did the renowned tabla maestro’s musicianship in the Hindustani classical tradition reign supreme, he was also a composer and collaborator par excellence, spanning the genres of Western classical, jazz and world music. Whether through Shakti, the celebrated band, or his recitals where he made the tabla sing, his language of music spoke to the world,” he said.

Ustad Zakir Hussain and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia. (Express archive)

Hussain accompanied his father Ustad Alla Rakha to the NCPA since it was founded in 1969, he said. In July 2015, Hussain became an honoured member of the NCPA Council, turning mentor and inspiration to future musicians, he said. “He upheld the true spirit of the guru-shishya tradition by sharing the stage with talented young artistes year after year at the Aadi Anant Festival of Indian Music. He wrote inspiring compositions with a profound message of peace, harmony and universal brotherhood for the Symphony Orchestra of India with which he toured the UK,” said Suntook.

Senior musician and musicologist Dr Suvarnalata Rao, head of NCPA’s Indian Music, said Hussain was a true legend whose contributions to the art of tabla will resonate through history. A versatile maestro whose mastery elevated the craft to great heights, Dr Rao said, adding, “beyond his unparalleled skills, Zakirji’s charisma and kindness left an indelible mark on all who had the privilege of working with him.”