Photo Credit: Jim McGuire

Zakir Hussain, a renowned tabla virtuoso and percussionist who was instrumental in spreading the sound and splendor of classical Indian music worldwide, passed away on Sunday at 73. 

In an official statement put out by his family, they cited his cause of death as complications due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. 

The family went on to extend admiration and offer acknowledgment of Hussain’s monumental influence, “His prolific work as a teacher, mentor and educator has left an indelible mark on countless musicians. He hoped to inspire the next generation to go further. He leaves behind an unparalleled legacy as a cultural ambassador and one of the greatest musicians of all time.” 

Hussain was born in 1951 in Mumbai, India, to tabla master Alla Rakha Qureshi. Considered a child prodigy, he learned the instrument from his father at the age of 7. By 12, he was touring internationally, supporting classically trained Indian masters. 

In our 2022 interview with the musician, he reflected on his early childhood and gaining knowledge from his father:

When I was learning tabla, I had blinders on and I was trying to emulate my dad. I tried to sound like him, play like him and act like him. I never really thought about the instrument in any other context. I was being true to the Indian classical rhythms and repertoire.

That’s where I was until I started working as a 13 or 14-year-old in Bollywood film orchestras. Those film orchestras were a strange combination. In one part of the room, you would have a whole string section: violin, viola, cello, bass. On another side of the room, you would have the Indian solo instruments like the sitar, the sarod, the bamboo flute, the sarangi and the santoors. Then, directly opposite that, you would have the saxophone, the silver flute, the trumpet and all that stuff. At the end of the room, opposite the strings, would be the piano. And, in the center of the room—sitting in a circle— would be the rhythm section. That rhythm section would include tabla, Indian folk drums, bongo drums, congas and various percussion stuff, like tambourines, cowbells and clave sticks.

All of them existed in one room. There were 50-60 musicians sitting there playing, and one singer would be in a corner in a closed booth, suffocating while trying to get some separation from the orchestra.

When I arrived in that situation, I started to see beyond the blinders. I started to jam with the horn players, the drummers and the piano player. Then my music started to reveal itself in a whole different way.

At age 19, the opportunity arrived to travel to the United States, where work ushered Hussain to share stages with sitarist Ravi Shankar, saxophone maestro John Handy and the great Indian sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan. 

Musical curiosity and the spirit of experimenting led Hussain to John McLaughlin and the inevitable success of Shakti. Reflecting on his early partnership with McLaughlin, Hussain told Relix, “So that kind of uncontrolled joy of having found lost brothers was so clearly there when we started playing together that nothing else really mattered. We never thought, ‘Hey, we could do something with this.’ It just was there and it happened to be recorded. Then, a couple months later, John called and said, ‘Hey, guys, there’s this recording and it’s great. You think we could make a record?’ That’s how it all began.” 

With Hussain, Shakti offered a unique blend of music, binding traditional Indian Hindustani with jazz and Western influences for something the world had yet to experience, and yet would come to revel in. The project included fellow musical dignitaries, percussionist Vikku Vinayakram, mandolinist U Srinivas, and violinist L Shankar. 

For five decades, Shakti defied the global music scene. The ensemble culled their influences and distributed the chart-topping results via three 1970s era albums: Shaki with John McLaughlin (1976), A Handful of Beauty (1976) and Natural Elements (1977), before a 2023 rebirth via the Grammy Award-winning This Moment. 

Reflecting on the band’s return, Hussain said, “There are a couple of milestone landmark Himalayan experiences that everybody has in their lives and the opportunity to plug into that once again is always something that one desires. At this juncture, when John is 80 and I’m 72 years old, I guess we are at a point where we both feel that we should just go around the block once more while we still can and experience that incredible energy.” 

Apart from Hussain’s success with Shakti, he lent his skill to a wide variety of Western artists, contributing to Geroge Harrison’s 1973 Living in the Material World LP, John Handy’s Hard Work, Van Morrison’s Into the Music and Earth Wind and Fire’s Powerlight. 

Hussain also brushed shoulders with the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, going on to create the global percussive celebration on the Planet Drum LP. The group featured fellow Shakti contributor Vinayakram. The group released their initial album to high critical praise, earning the 1992 Grammy for Best World Music Album during the category’s debut year. 

The Global Drum Project album won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album. Comparing his experience performing with Shakti and Planet Drum, he said, “The differences are that one has a fabulous combination on an equal basis of rhythm and melody, which is Shakti, and the other hits you with the pulse and the rhythm and the tempo and gets you going in that way, which is Planet Drum. So for me, it is really the best combo to go out there and experience the rhythm and the melodies together, and then just unabashedly go rhythm.”

Hussain’s ceaseless musical spirit kept him active and engaged through the years. In 2016, he was a guest of then-president Barak Obama during an All-Star Global Concert at the White House to commemorate International Jazz Day. 

Hussain is survived by his wife, Antonia Minnecola, and two daughters, Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi.