Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, one of India’s most renowned musicians, died in San Francisco early Monday at the age of 73 of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, according to his family. With accomplishments of an incomparable talent and contributions made to the world music industry, Hussain performed for six decades. He is survived by his wife Antonia Minnecola, daughters Anisa and Isabella Qureshi, brothers Taufiq and Fazal Qureshi and sister Khurshid Aulia.
He had been in ICU in a San Francisco hospital owing to some complications associated with his heart. Regarding this, close friend and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia said that Hussain was ill while manager Nirmala Bachani said that he had been suffering from blood pressure and heart ailments for two weeks now.
He is the eldest son of the great tabla player Ustad Allah Rakha, and steps into the world as a role model for Indian classical music. He was awarded with Padma shri in 1988, Padma bhusan in 2002 and Padma Vibhushan in the upcoming year in 2023. His contributions were not only amazing, been felt in every part of the world thus making him a global hero.
Some of the recording artists with whom Hussain cooperated were Pandit Ravi Shankar, Pandit Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Work with todays western musicians including Yo-Yo Ma, Charles Lloyd, George Harrison, John McLaughlin etc showed his aptitude to such experimentations devoid of culture or music type boundaries.
Hussain also has a five time Grammy Award winner, which is an honor that he added to earlier this year to become the first Indian artist to capture three Grammy Awards in a single night. His other achievements were the Kyoto Prize in 2022 for his contributions to humanities and spiritual development of society.
In 1999 he performed the National Heritage Fellowship of the National Endowment for art, this accompanied by money which is the highest honor given to the traditiional artists in USA. Other honours include the Lifetime Achievement Award of the San Francisco Jazz organisation in 2017 and the prestigious Aga Khan Award in 2022 for his “Musical Genius and Enduring Influence on Society,” work.
Audiences from all over the world could strongly relate to Hussain’s work. He did not only contribute to growth of Indian music especially classical but also in diffusion of the same music around the world. His associations have taken Indian music to the mainstream and incorporated it with all types of music including jazz, rock and, Western classical music.
Zakir Hussain has left behind the world of music and it can be said that the great musician has passed away. His musicianship, simplicity and commitment towards bringing Indian music to the world caused him to be referred as the Indian music’s ambassador. His vision will live on generations musicians and music lovers in the entire world.
