Wednesday, December 18, 2024

A00092 - Zakir Hussain, Grammy Winning Tabla Master

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Zakir Hussain
Background information
Birth nameZakir Allarakha Qureshi
Born9 March 1951
Bombay, Bombay State (now Mumbai, Maharashtra), India
Died15 December 2024 (aged 73)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Genres
OccupationMusician
InstrumentTabla
Years active1963–2024
LabelsHMV
Websitezakirhussain.com
Honours

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Zakir Hussain Allarakha Qureshi (b. March 9, 1951 – d. December 15, 2024) was an Indian tabla player, composer, percussionist, music producer, and film actor. He was known for bringing classical Indian music to a global audience. He was the eldest son of tabla player All Rakha. During his career, Hussain won four Grammy Awards.

Hussain was awarded the United States National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship, the highest award given to traditional artists and musicians. He was also awarded the Government of India's Sangeet Natak Akademi Award,in 1990, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, Ratna Sadsya in 2018.

Hussain received seven Grammy Award nominations, with four wins, including three in 2024.

Zakir Allaraka Qureshi was born on March 9, 1951, in present day Mumbai, Maharashtra, India to tabla master Alla Rakha Qureshi.  He attended St. Michael's High School in Mahim and graduated from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.

Hussain played on George Harrison's 1973 album Living in the Material World and John Handy's 1973 album Hard Work. He also performed on Van Morrison's 1979 album Into the Music and Earth Wind & Fire's 1983 album Powerlight.

Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead who had known Hussain since the 1960s, invited him to create the special album Planet Drum, featuring drummers from different parts of the world. Featured along with Hussain, from India, was Vikku Vinayakram, with whom Hussain had collaborated in Shakti. The first Planet Drum album, released in 1991 on the Rykodisc label, went on to earn the 1992 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album, the first Grammy ever awarded in this category. The Global Drum Project album and tour brought Mickey Hart, Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju, and Giovanni Hidalgo together again in a reunion sparked by the 15th anniversary of the Planet Drum album. The album Global Drum Project won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album at the 51st Grammy Awards Ceremony held on February 8, 2009.

Hussain composed, performed and acted as Indian music advisor for the Malayalam film Vanaprastham a 1999 Cannes Film Festival the entry which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival (AFI Fest) in 1999, and won awards at 2000 Istanbul International Film Festival (Turkey), 2000 Mumbai International Film Festival (India), and 2000 National Film Awards (India). He has composed soundtracks for several movies, most notably In Custody and The Mystic Masseur by Ismail Merchant and has played tabla on the soundtracks of Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha and other films. He starred in several films specifically showcasing his musical performance both solo and with different bands, including the 1998 documentary Zakir and His Friends, and the documentary The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum (2003 Sumantra Ghosal). Hussain co-starred as Inder Lal in the 1983 Merchant Ivory film Heat and Dust, for which he was an associate music director.

Hussain was a founding member of Bill Laswell's world music supergroup Tabla Beat Science. 

In 2016, Hussain was amongst many musicians invited by President Obama to the International Jazz Day 2016 All-Star Global Concert at the White House. 

In a conversation with author Nasreen Munni Kabir, as written in her book Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music, Hussain stated that he did not play at private gatherings, corporate events, or weddings; he believed music should not be heard at events where folks come to socialize, drink or enjoy a meal (music should be the sole purpose of the event).

Nasreen Munni Kabir compiled 15 interview sessions (each lasting about 2 hours) from 2016 to 2017 into the book Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music, which was published in 2018. This book takes the reader through Hussain's life from his youth, his years of intense training, and growth as a musician.

He was named an Old Dominion Fellow by the Humanities Council at Princeton University, where he resided for the 2005–2006 semester as full professor in the music department. He was also a visiting professor at Stanford University. In May 2022, he was conferred the honorary Doctor of Law (LLD) degree for his contribution to the field of music by the University of Mumbai. 

Hussain died from complications arising due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in San Francisco, California, on December 15, 2024.

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Zakir Hussain Allarakha Qureshi (9 March 1951 – 15 December 2024) was an Indian tabla player, composer, percussionist, music producer, and film actor. He was known for bringing classical Indian music to a global audience. He was the eldest son of tabla player Alla Rakha,[1] and won four Grammy Awards.[2]

Hussain was awarded the United States National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage Fellowship, the highest award given to traditional artists and musicians. He was also awarded the Government of India's Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1990, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship, Ratna Sadsya in 2018.

Hussain received seven Grammy Award nominations, with four wins,[1] including three in 2024.[2][3]

Ud. Zakir Hussain and Pt. Niladri Kumar, SSF-2022, Nazrul Mancha Kolkata
Ud. Zakir Hussain and Pt. Niladri Kumar, SSF-2022, Nazrul Mancha Kolkata

Early life and education

Zakir Allaraka Qureshi was born on 9 March 1951 in present-day Mumbai, Maharashtra, India to tabla master Alla Rakha Qureshi.[4][5]

He attended St. Michael's High School in Mahim and graduated from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.[6]

Career

Hussain performing at Konark, Odisha

Hussain played on George Harrison's 1973 album Living in the Material World and John Handy's 1973 album Hard Work. He also performed on Van Morrison's 1979 album Into the Music and Earth, Wind & Fire's 1983 album Powerlight.[7]

Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, who had known Hussain since the 1960s,[8] invited him to create the special album Planet Drum, featuring drummers from different parts of the world. Featured along with Hussain, from India, was Vikku Vinayakram, with whom Hussain had collaborated in Shakti. The first Planet Drum album, released in 1991 on the Rykodisc label, went on to earn the 1992 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album, the first Grammy ever awarded in this category.[9][10] The Global Drum Project album and tour brought Mickey Hart, Hussain, Sikiru Adepoju, and Giovanni Hidalgo together again in a reunion sparked by the 15th anniversary of the Planet Drum album. The album Global Drum Project won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album at the 51st Grammy Awards Ceremony held on 8 February 2009.[11]

Hussain composed, performed and acted as Indian music advisor for the Malayalam film Vanaprastham, a 1999 Cannes Film Festival entry which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival (AFI Fest) in 1999, and won awards at 2000 Istanbul International Film Festival (Turkey), 2000 Mumbai International Film Festival (India), and 2000 National Film Awards (India).[12][13][14][citation needed] He has composed soundtracks for several movies, most notably In Custody and The Mystic Masseur by Ismail Merchant, and has played tabla on the soundtracks of Francis Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha, and other films. [15][16] He starred in several films specifically showcasing his musical performance both solo and with different bands, including the 1998 documentary Zakir and His Friends,[17] and the documentary The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum (2003 Sumantra Ghosal).[18] Hussain co-starred as Inder Lal in the 1983 Merchant Ivory film Heat and Dust, for which he was an associate music director.[19]

Hussain was a founding member of Bill Laswell's world music supergroup Tabla Beat Science.[20]

In 2016, Hussain was amongst many musicians invited by President Obama to the International Jazz Day 2016 All-Star Global Concert at the White House.[21]

Haridas Vhatkar has been making Hussain's tablas for more than 18 years.[22] Haridas said he learned how to make tabla so he could specially make them for Hussain.[22]

In a conversation with author Nasreen Munni Kabir, as written in her book Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music, Hussain stated that he did not play at private gatherings, corporate events, or weddings; he believed music should not be heard at events where folks come to socialise, drink or enjoy a meal (music should be the sole purpose of the event).[22]

Book

Nasreen Munni Kabir compiled 15 interview sessions (each lasting about 2 hours) from 2016 to 2017 into the book Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music, which was published in 2018.[22] This book takes the reader through Hussain's life from his youth, his years of intense training, and growth as a musician.[22]

Personal life

Hussain married Antonia Minnecola, a Kathak dancer and teacher, who was also his manager.[23] They had two daughters, Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi. Anisa graduated from UCLA and is a film maker. Isabella is studying dance in Manhattan.[24]

Hussain had two brothers: Taufiq Qureshi a percussionist, and Fazal Qureshi, also a tabla player. Their brother Munawar died at a young age when he was attacked by a rabid dog.[22] His eldest sister Bilquis died before Hussain was born. Another sister, Razia, died due to complications during a cataract surgery, just a few hours before their father's death in 2000.[22] He has another sister named Khurshid.[22]

He was named an Old Dominion Fellow by the Humanities Council at Princeton University, where he resided for the 2005–2006 semester as full professor in the music department.[25] He was also a visiting professor at Stanford University.[26] In May 2022, he was conferred the honorary Doctor of Law (LLD) degree for his contribution to the field of music by the University of Mumbai.[27]

Death and legacy

Hussain died from complications arising due to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in San Francisco, California, on 15 December 2024, at the age of 73.[28][29][30]

In his obituary, Al Jazeera called him "Indian music legend". The news channel further stated that Zakir was considered the greatest tabla player of his time and he brought Indian classical music to the world.[31]

Legendary Indian musician Zakir Hussain, considered the greatest tabla player of his generation, has died.

— Al Jazeera English

According to BBC, he was one of the world's greatest tabla players.[30]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was "a true genius who revolutionised the world of Indian classical music".[30]

English guitarist John McLaughlin who performed with Hussain in the band Shakti - described him as "the King, in whose hands, rhythm became magic".[30]

Discography

[33][24]

Filmography

Soundtracks

Awards and honours

  • Hussain was awarded the titles of Padma Shri in 1988, Padma Bhushan in 2002,[34][35] and Padma Vibhushan in 2023.[36]
  • Awarded the Indo-American Award in 1990 in recognition of his outstanding cultural contribution to relations between the United States and India.[37]
  • Presented with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1990 by the President of India, making him one of the youngest musicians to receive this recognition given by the Sangeet Natak Academy, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama.[38]
  • In 1992 Planet Drum, an album co-created and produced by Hussain and Mickey Hart, was awarded the first-ever Grammy for Best World Music Album,[39] the Downbeat Critics' Poll for Best World Beat Album and the NARM Indie Best Seller Award for a World Music Recording.[40]
  • Recipient of a 1999 National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States government's honour for a master in the traditional arts, presented by First Lady Hillary Clinton at the United States Senate on 28 September 1999.[4]
  • In 2005, he was named an Old Dominion Fellow by the Humanities Council at Princeton University, where he resided for the 2005–2006 semester as full professor in the music department, teaching a survey course in Indian classical music and dance.[41]
  • Recipient of the Kalidas Samman in 2006, an award for artists of exceptional achievement, from the Government of Madhya Pradesh.[42]
  • Golden Strings of the Sarode (Moment! Records 2006) with Aashish Khan and Hussain was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional World Music Album category in 2006.[43]
  • In 2007, readers' polls from both Modern Drummer and Drum! magazines named Hussain Best World Music and Best World Beat Drummer respectively.[44]
  • On 8 February 2009 for the 51st Grammy Awards, Hussain won the Grammy in the Contemporary World Music Album category for his collaborative album Global Drum Project along with Mickey Hart, Sikiru Adepoju & Giovanni Hidalgo.[1]
  • On 23 February 2012 for Guru Gangadhar Pradhan Lifetime Achievement Award at Konark Dance & Music Festival, organised by Konark Natya Mandap[45]
  • Summer of 2016, he was nominated for President's Medal of the Arts, however, new rule stated non-Americans could not receive the medal.[22]
  • On 18 January 2017, San Francisco Jazz Center gave Hussain a Lifetime Achievement Award[22]
  • In 2019, Sangeet Natak Academy, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama, honored Hussain with the Academy Fellow award, also known as the Academy Ratna, for the year 2018.[22]
  • In 2022, he was conferred the honorary Doctor of Law (LLD) degree for his exceptional contribution in the field of music by Mumbai University.[27]
  • On 17 June 2022, he was named by the non-profit Inamori Foundation to receive the Kyoto Prize, Japan's highest private award for global achievement, in the category of Arts and Philosophy (field: Music).[46]
  • On 4 February 2024, Hussain received three awards at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards.[47][48] Hussain's first win came for Pashto, written and recorded in collaboration with American banjo player Béla Fleck, American bassist Edgar Meyer and Indian flautist Rakesh Chaurasia. Hussain's second Grammy of the night was for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, which he won alongside Fleck, Meyer and Chaurasia, for the eclectic classical-meets-jazz album, As We Speak. His third win of the night came for the album This Moment, the critically acclaimed comeback of the pioneering world-fusion band Shakti. [49]

Tribute

The line "Zakir Hussain Tabela Ivaltana" in the Tamil song "Telephone Manipol" in the 1996 filmIndian, directed by S. Shankar is a tribute to him. This song was written by poet Vairamuthu.[50]

See also

References

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b c "Artist: Zakir Hussain". Grammy.com. 2024. Archived from the original on 25 May 2024. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b "Ustad Zakir Hussain Wins three Grammy Awards in different categories". Bru Times News. Archived from the original on 7 February 2024. Retrieved 7 February 2024.
  3. ^ "Without harmony, we are nothing: Zakir Hussain wins 3 Grammy awards". Hindustan Times. 5 February 2024. Archived from the original on 6 February 2024. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b "Zakir Hussain: North Indian Master Tabla Drummer". www.arts.gov. National Endowment for the Arts. n.d. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Zakir Hussain, Peerless Indian Tabla Player, Dies at 73". 16 December 2024. Archived from the original on 16 December 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  6. ^ "Zakir Hussain: His name spells magic on tabla". Hindustan Times. 30 September 2019. Archived from the original on 16 March 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2022.
  7. ^ Jurek, Thom. "Zakir Hussain". allmusic.com. Allmusic.
  8. ^ "The Tabla Master Who Jammed With The Grateful Dead". NPR.org. Archived from the original on 15 November 2017. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
  9. ^ "The Global Drum Project". Planet Drum. Archived from the original on 25 February 2010.
  10. ^ "Deconstructing 'world music' at the Grammys". Afrobeat Radio. 15 February 2010. Archived from the original on 28 June 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2010.
  11. ^ "'Global Drum Project' featuring Zakir Hussain wins Grammy". Express India. 9 February 2009. Archived from the original on 8 April 2015. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  12. ^ "VANAPRASTHAM". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  13. ^ "Directorate of Film Festivals". web.archive.org. 18 July 2020. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  14. ^ "FIPRESCI - Awards - 2000". archive.ph. 30 July 2012. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  15. ^ Kumar, Anuj (16 December 2024). "Ustad Zakir Hussain tribute: Tabla loses its vibrant voice". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  16. ^ Mukherjee, Vasudha (16 December 2024). "Who was tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain?". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 16 December 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  17. ^ Gates, Anita (2008). "Zakir and His Friends". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 7 July 2008.
  18. ^ "The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain and the Art of the Indian Drum". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times. 2008. Archived from the original on 15 September 2008.
  19. ^ "Heat and Dust". Merchant Ivory Productions. Archived from the original on 8 May 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
  20. ^ "Tabla Beat Science". National Geographic Music. Archived from the original on 6 February 2009.
  21. ^ "International Jazz Day". International Jazz Day. 30 March 2016. Retrieved 30 June 2016.
  22. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k Kabir, Nasreen (2018). Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India: HarperCollins Publisher India. ISBN 978-93-5277-049-6.
  23. ^ "Bharatnatyam in Jeans". Little India. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  24. ^ Jump up to:a b "Ustad Zakir Hussain". Cultural India. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
  25. ^ "Best Of Zakir Hussain – Tabla Samrat". Calcutta Music Blog. Archived from the original on 9 August 2011.
  26. ^ "Zakir Hussain Shivkumar Sharma". Carnegie Hall. Archived from the original on 15 May 2008.
  27. ^ Jump up to:a b "zakir hussain: Mu Confers Zakir Hussain With Doctorate". The Times of India. TNN. 13 May 2022. Archived from the original on 19 May 2022. Retrieved 19 May 2022.
  28. ^ "Zakir Hussain, legendary Tabla virtuoso, dies at 73, confirms family". Hindustan Times. 16 December 2024. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  29. ^ Kim, Juliana (16 December 2024). "Zakir Hussain, legendary tabla virtuoso who defied genres, dies at 73". NPR. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  30. ^ Jump up to:a b c d "Legendary Indian tabla player Zakir Hussain dies at 73". BBC news.
  31. ^ "Indian music legend Zakir Hussain dies aged 73". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 17 December 2024.
  32. ^ "Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussain Announce New LP 'As We Speak' with Rakesh Chaurasia". Relix. 3 March 2023. Retrieved 3 March 2023.
  33. ^ "Zakir Hussain: Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  34. ^ "Year wise list of recipients 1954-2014" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs (India). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 November 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  35. ^ "Padma Vibhushan for Rangarajan, Soli Sorabjee". The Hindu. 26 January 2002. Archived from the original on 19 July 2009. Retrieved 26 January 2002.
  36. ^ "Padma Awards 2023 announced". www.pib.gov.in. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  37. ^ Hightower, Laura (n.d.). "Hussain, Zakir". Encyclopedia.com. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  38. ^ "SNA: Awardees List". Sangeet Natak Academy. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015.
  39. ^ "Album featuring Zakir Hussain wins Grammy for contemporary world music". The Times of India. 9 February 2009. ISSN 0971-8257. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  40. ^ "Zakir Hussain". Drummerworld. 2023. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  41. ^ "Zakir Hussain". Kennedy Center. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  42. ^ "Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain performs in Bhopal, India, Monday, Feb. 13, 2006. Hussain was conferred with Kalidas Samman by the Madhya Pradesh state government". Alamy.com. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  43. ^ "Artist: Aashish Khan". Grammy.com. 2024. Archived from the original on 15 June 2024. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  44. ^ "Zakir Hussain and Masters of Percussion". www.bucknell.edu. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  45. ^ "Spirit's triumph". The Hindu. 28 February 2013. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  46. ^ "2022 Kyoto Prize Laureates: Zakir Hussain". kyotoprize.org. Inamori Foundation. 2022. Archived from the original on 17 June 2022. Retrieved 18 June 2022.
  47. ^ "Shankar Mahadevan & Zakir Hussain Triumph at 2024 Grammy Awards with 'The moment' album". Bru Times News. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  48. ^ "Grammy Awards 2024 winner Shakti: 5 things you need to know about Shankar Mahadevan and Zakir Hussain's fusion band". Hindustan Times. 5 February 2024. Archived from the original on 5 February 2024. Retrieved 5 February 2024.
  49. ^ "Without harmony, we are nothing: Zakir Hussain wins 3 Grammy awards". Hindustan Times. 5 February 2024. Archived from the original on 6 February 2024. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
  50. ^ "Telephone Manipol Lyrics from movie/album Indian". www.glyric.com. Retrieved 14 May 2022.

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Zakir Hussain, Tabla Virtuoso Who Fused Musical Traditions, Dies at 73

His collaborators included John McLaughlin, Béla Fleck, Ravi Shankar, Herbie Hancock, Yo-Yo Ma and members of the Grateful Dead.

Listen to this article · 7:12 min Learn more
Zakir Hussain wearing a traditional Indian shirt and playing the tabla drum. The sun is in the background.
Zakir Hussain at a festival in 2022, above; and below, with, from left, Shankar Mahadevan, V. Selvaganesh and Ganesh Rajagopalan. of Shakti, winners of the “Global Music Album” award for “This Moment.”

, pose in the press room at the 66th GRAMMY Awards at Peacock Theater on February 04, 2024 iCredit...Piyal Adhikary/EPA, via Shutterstock

By Jon Pareles

Zakir Hussain, a percussionist and composer who was both a master of North Indian classical music and a linchpin of far-reaching world-music fusions, died on Saturday in San Francisco. He was 73.

His death, in a hospital, was from the lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, his family said in a statement. He lived in the Bay Area.

Mr. Hussain earned the honorific Ustad, given to Muslim virtuosos of Hindustani (North Indian) classical music. He performed and recorded extensively with leading Indian musicians, including Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and Shivkumar Sharma. His main instrument was the tabla, the tuned drums that accompany Indian classical ragas, but he also played many other traditional and modern instruments.

Mr. Hussain’s work reached well beyond the Indian classical tradition to forge global musical hybrids. With the English jazz guitarist John McLaughlin, the Indian violinist L. Shankar and the Indian percussionist T.H. Vinayakram, he formed the group Shakti in 1973. Shakti was not only an East-West fusion, but also, with its two percussionists, a fusion of North and South Indian rhythms.

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Mr. McLaughlin, Mr. Hussain and three other Indian musicians regrouped as Shakti to record the 2023 album “This Moment”; it won a Grammy Award this year for best global music album.

Mr. Hussain shared two more Grammys this year — for global music performance and contemporary instrumental album — for the album “As We Speak,” a collaboration by Mr. Hussain, the banjo player Béla Fleck, the bassist Edgar Meyer and the Indian bansuri (bamboo flute) player Rakesh Chaurasia.

Through the years, Mr. Hussain performed and recorded with George Harrison, Van Morrison, Yo-Yo Ma, Pharoah Sanders, the Japanese drum group Kodo, Herbie Hancock and Charles Lloyd.

He also composed soundtrack music and orchestral works, and until recently he played more than 150 concerts a year. To every performance, he brought an eagerly attentive presence, beaming as his hands flew over his tabla drums to deliver fleet, microscopically precise beats and melodic tones.

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At the ceremony where he accepted the 2022 Kyoto Prize, a Japanese lifetime achievement award in the arts and sciences, Mr. Hussain said: “I am from India representing the age-old tradition of North Indian classical music. The way it was played 500 years ago — same way it is being played now, performed now. The difference now is we not only are doing our music, Indian classical music, but we are also learning how to be able to talk our music in as many different musical languages as possible, because the world has become small.”

Zakir Hussain Qureshi was born on March 9, 1951, in Bombay (now Mumbai). He was the eldest son of Ravi Shankar’s longtime tabla drummer Alla Rakha Qureshi. His mother, Bavi Begum, oversaw the household while also taking care of her husband’s students. She changed his surname to Hussain a few days after he was born, on the advice of a saint, he said.

Mr. Hussain dated his musical career from two days after he was born.

“I was brought home from the hospital,” he told NPR in 2015. “The tradition is that the son is handed to the father, and then the father has to recite a prayer in his son’s ear, putting him on his way. My father, when he took me in his arm, instead of reciting a prayer, he sang rhythms in my ear. And my mother was very upset and said, ‘Why are you doing this?’ And he said, ‘Because this is my prayer.’”

After playing on drums, pots and pans as a young child, Mr. Hussain officially became his father’s student at 7. They would awaken daily before dawn to study Indian classical music for three hours. Before starting his school classes, Zakir recited the Quran at a madrasa and sang hymns at a Roman Catholic church. He lived near a mosque, where he would hear Sufi qawwali music.

Image
Credit...Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

Mr. Hussain played his first paid concert when he was 12. He became a session musician performing Indian film music, which often fused an international assortment of styles. He made his United States debut at 18, playing with Ravi Shankar at the Fillmore East in New York in 1970, when his father was ill, and continuing with Shankar on tour.

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In San Francisco, he joined jam sessions with the Grateful Dead and recorded with band members on the 1971 solo album by the Dead’s drummer Mickey Hart, “Rolling Thunder.”

Mr. Hussain studied and taught ethnomusicology at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he earned a Ph.D. He moved to Northern California to teach at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, where he led the Tal Vadya Rhythm Band, a cross-cultural, percussion-centered group.

Mr. Hart joined the group in 1975, and led by him and Mr. Hussain, it was renamed the Diga Rhythm Band. It released a debut album, “Diga,” in 1976, featuring the Dead’s Jerry Garcia as guest guitarist. One of its tracks, “Happiness Is Drumming,” was reworked into the Dead’s song “Fire on the Mountain.”

Mr. Hussain often joined Mr. Hart through the years, on projects including the 1991 album “Planet Drum,” which won the first Grammy Award for world music album. Global Drum Project — a group with Mr. Hussain, Mr. Hart, the Puerto Rican percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo and the Nigerian percussionist Sikiru Adepoju — also won a world-music Grammy, in 2009.

In 1978, Mr. Hussain married Antonia Minnecola, a dancer in the Indian classical style Kathak. She was also his manager. She survives him, along with their daughters, Isabella and Anisa Qureshi; two brothers, Taufiq and Fazal Qureshi; a sister, Khurshid Aulia; and a granddaughter.

Through the years, Mr. Hussain appeared on hundreds of albums, equally at home with Indian classical traditions and fresh multicultural hybrids. He recorded dazzling tabla duets with his father and extended, introspective ragas with leading Indian musicians. In 1991, he started a label, Moment Records, to release his classical and contemporary collaborations. Eight years later, the producer Bill Laswell and Mr. Hussain assembled Tabla Beat Science, a project that merged tabla drumming and electronics, leading to a studio album and a tour.

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Throughout his career, Mr. Hussain continued to forge kinetic musical alliances.

“Music is a conversation that happens amongst people,” he said in an interview with India Today. “And it happens to be a process or an exercise which transcends all borders and all fences, all religions, all other ways of life, and it’s a living process unto itself.

“If people all over the world would consider interacting with each other the way the musicians and the artists all over the world interact with each other,” he continued, “we would have a much more peaceful planet.”

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