UAE fans recall Ustad Zakir Hussain

“When he played the audience forgot to breathe,” recalls Dubai-based businessman Dinesh Kothari, who saw the legend Zakir Hussain in concert two or three times in India. “His contribution to the world of music is so great, it’s impossible to describe. Listening to him, seeing him perform was an experience, a feeling,” he says.

Hussain was 73 when he passed away in a San Francisco, US hospital on Monday. He had suffered from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — a chronic lung disease — which caused fatal complications, his family said in a statement.

As news of his death spreads, tributes have been pouring in for the stage icon. India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, for example, called him “an icon of cultural unity.” He wrote on X, formerly Twitter, “Deeply saddened by the passing of the legendary tabla maestro, Ustad Zakir Hussain Ji. He will be remembered as a true genius who revolutionised the world of Indian classical music. He also brought the tabla to the global stage, captivating millions with his unparalleled rhythm. Through this, he seamlessly blended Indian classical traditions with global music, thus becoming an icon of cultural unity.”

Known for his ‘dancing fingers’, if the stories are to be believed, Hussain’s first brush with music came a few days after he was born on March 9, 1951. When he was taken home as a two-day-old infant, his father, the legendary Ustad Alla Rakha, held him tight and began to ‘sing rhythm syllables’ into the little one’s ears.

Early starter

By the time he was 12, he had drummed his way to a professional career as a tabla player, having claimed the title of child prodigy and accompanying Indian classical musicians as they performed for an audience.

At 18, he was already jetting around the world to play with stalwarts such as Pandit Ravi Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

“It was almost trance-like, the way he would play, and it would hypnotise you as well,” says businessman Vivek Mehta, who has been in the UAE since 1984 and who has acted as a professional photographer for a number of the Ustad’s events in the country.

The professional tabla player was taught in Indian classical tradition, but he would not let this limit him; he would go on to explore the sounds and interplay of other genres as well, resulting in a number of fantastic collaborations with the likes of George Harrison, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and jazz musician Herbie Hancock.

In 1973, he co-founded the band Shakti with guitarist John McLaughlin, crafting a sound that danced through the genres of both Indian classical music and jazz.

One of Hussain’s most prized partnerships was with Mickey Hart of The Grateful Dead, Giovanni Hidalgo and Sikiru Adepoju for Planet Drum. Hussain in an interview with Billboard called the project a “groove album. Very little virtuoso soloing, but four of us in sync within the groove adds up to something incredible.”

He also collaborated for the Global Drum Project with Hart.

For these projects – and for his last album, This Moment – he was nominated for seven Grammy awards, winning four including three this year.

• Zakir Hussain passes away at 73: Bollywood celebrities mourn loss of tabla maestro