Zakir Hussain (Musician)

Some Lesser Known Facts About Zakir Hussain

• Zakir Hussain was a genius student since his childhood. His father, Ustad Alla Rakha, was a legendary Tabla Player and started teaching him Pakhawaj when he was three years old.

• He performed with many legendary maestros of music such as Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Pandit VG Jog, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Pandit Jasraj, and many more.

• In his early twenties, he attained the peak of his popularity and started visiting the United States frequently and he had performed more than 150 concerts per year

• His wife is also a professional Kathak dancer and a dance teacher. She had also been his manager for a long time.

• He had greatly contributed to raising the status of the Tabla players in society, which earlier considered playing the Tabla as the most contemptuous art.

• He also collaborated with great artists such as Grateful Dead and Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane and once, with these artists, he played a jam session for four days while tripping on banned substances.

•  He got associated with violinist L. Shankar, guitarist John McLaughlin, mridangam player Ramnad Raghavan, and legendary ghatam player Vikku Vinayakram and formed a fusion group named ‘Shakti’, and on the 20th anniversary of this group, he introduced the world with the second version of the group named as ‘ Remember Shakti’, which accompanied artists like U. Srinivas, T.V. Selvaganesh, and Shankar Mahadevan.

• Mickey Hart of ‘Grateful Dead’, invited Zakir Hussain to create a special album called Global Planet Drum Project, which featured legendary musicians from different parts of the world. This albumwas  released in 1991 on the Rykodisc label and went on to earn the 1992 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album, which is the first Grammy ever awarded in this category.

• He also starred in several documentaries such as  Zakir and His Friends, The Speaking Hand: Zakir Hussain, and the Art of the Indian Drum and also co-starred in the film Heat and Dust.

• In 2016, Zakir Hussain was amongst a few legendary musicians, who were invited by President Obama for the ‘All-Star Global Concert’ at the White House.

• He was a founding member of  ‘The World Music Supergroup’ and also a visiting professor at Stanford University in the Department of Music.

• The band Remember Shakti won the Best Global Music Album award for ‘This Moment’ at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2024.

  

• Here is the video of the interview, in which Simi Garewal is unveiling the life pages of  Zakir Hussain and his wife.

• In November 2024, Zakir was admitted to a hospital after complaining of heart ailments. Thereafter, he was shifted to the ICU after his condition worsened.

• On 15 December 2024, news began circulating that Zakir had passed away; however, the family and his publicist refuted the claims. On 16 December 2024, his family formally announced his passing.