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Zakir Hussain

The pre-eminent classical tabla virtuoso of our time, Zakir Hussain is appreciated both in the field of percussion and in the music world at large as an international phenomenon and one of the world’s most esteemed and influential musicians. The foremost disciple of his father, the legendary Ustad Allarakha, Zakir was a child prodigy who began his professional career at the age of twelve, accompanying India’s greatest classical musicians and dancers and touring internationally with great success by the age of eighteen. His brilliant accompaniment, solo performance and genre-defying collaborations, including his pioneering work to develop a dialogue between North and South Indian musicians, have elevated the status of his instrument both in India and globally, bringing the tabla into a new dimension of renown and appreciation.

Widely considered a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement, Zakir’s contribution has been unique, with many historic and groundbreaking collaborations, including Shakti, Remember Shakti, Masters of Percussion, Planet Drum and Global Drum Project with Mickey Hart, Tabla Beat Science, Sangam with Charles Lloyd and Eric Harland, CrossCurrents with Dave Holland and Chris Potter, in trio with Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer, and, most recently, with Herbie Hancock.

As a composer, he has scored music for numerous feature films, major events and productions. He has composed three concertos, and his third, the first-ever concerto for tabla and orchestra, was premiered in India in September, 2015, by the Symphony Orchestra of India, premiered in Europe and the UK in 2016, and in the USA in April, 2017, by the National Symphony Orchestra at Kennedy Center. A Grammy award winner, Zakir is the recipient of countless awards and honors, including Padma Vibhushan, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the USA’s National Heritage Fellowship and Officier in France’s Order of Arts and Letters. Voted “Best Percussionist” by both the Downbeat Critics’ Poll and Modern Drummer’s Reader’s Poll over several years, Zakir was honored in 2018 by the Montreal Jazz Festival with their Antonio Carlos Jobim Award. Zakir has received several honorary doctorates and, in 2019, became a Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellow, a rare lifetime distinction afforded to only 40 artists at a time by India’s reigning cultural institution. Zakir is the 2022 Kyoto Prize laureate in Arts and Philosophy, awarded by the Inamori Foundation to “those who have contributed significantly to the scientific, cultural and spiritual betterment of mankind.”

As an educator, he conducts many workshops and lectures each year, has been in residence at Princeton University and Stanford University, and, in 2015, was appointed Regents Lecturer at UCBerkeley.

His yearly workshop in the San Francisco Bay Area, conducted for the past 30 years, has become a widely anticipated event for performers and serious students of tabla. He is the founder and president of Moment Records, an independent record label presenting rare live concert recordings of Indian classical music and world music. Zakir was resident artistic director at SFJazz from 2013 until 2016, and was honored with SF Jazz’s Lifetime Achievement Award on January 18, 2017, in recognition of his “unparalleled contribution to the world of music”.

Awards

Awarded the titles of Padma Bhushan, in 2002, and Padma Shri, in 1988, becoming the youngest percussionist to be awarded these, given to civilians of merit, by the Indian government.
Awarded the Indo-American Award in 1990 in recognition for his outstanding cultural contribution to relations between the United States and India.
Presented with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1991 by the President of India, making him one of the youngest musicians to receive this recognition from India's governing cultural institute.
Recipient of the prestigious Kalidas Samman in 2006, an award for artists of exceptional achievement, from the government of Madhya Pradesh.
Recipient of the 1999 National Heritage Fellowship, the United States’ most prestigious honor for a master in the traditional arts, presented by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at the United States Senate on September 28, 1999.
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.
In 2007, readers’ polls from both Modern Drummer and Drum! magazines named Zakir Hussain Best World Music and Best World Beat Drummer respectively.
In 1992, Planet Drum, an album co-created and produced by Zakir and Mickey Hart, was awarded the first-ever Grammy® for Best World Music Album, the Downbeat Critics’ Poll for Best World Beat Album and the NARM Indie Best Seller Award for a World Music Recording.
In 1992, Zakir founded Moment! Records, which features original collaborations in the field of contemporary world music, as well as live concert performances by great masters of the classical music of India. The label presents Zakir's own world percussion ensemble, The Rhythm Experience, both North and South Indian classical recordings, Best of Shakti and the Masters of Percussion series. Moment Records’ 2006 release Golden Strings of the Sarode with Aashish Khan and Zakir Hussain was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Traditional World Music Album category for that year.

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Bela Fleck: As We Speak

Read "As We Speak" reviewed by Doug Collette

by Doug Collette
December 29, 2023

As We Speak is an emphatic continuation of banjoist Bela Fleck's eclectic adventures dating back to his high school days. It is thus only fitting that this LP's title alludes to the ongoing artistic process wherein creativity can ensue, virtually non-stop, no matter what other dialogue(s) might be going on at the time. In fact, the trio of Fleck, tabla master Zakir Hussain and bassist Edgar Meyer have collaborated in the past--see The Melody of Rhythm (Koch, 2009). ...

Album Review

Shakti: This Moment

Read "This Moment" reviewed by Geno Thackara

by Geno Thackara
July 7, 2023

The Shakti of This Moment is essentially the Shakti of all its moments--a natural fusion bridging jazzy interplay with the forms and rhythms of Hindustani carnatic music, even if the sound is leagues away from the all-acoustic wildfire that singed countless ears with the live Shakti with John McLaughlin (Columbia, 1976). The group's unexpected reemergence after never-mind-how-many decades comes with a share of surprises, from touches of vaguely reed-like MIDI guitar to the presence of a co-lead violin for the ...

Album Review

John McLaughlin and Shakti: This Moment

Read "This Moment" reviewed by Dave Linn

by Dave Linn
June 13, 2023

John McLaughlin was known for his work with Miles Davis on Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1970) and with Tony Williams' Lifetime before forming his groundbreaking fusion band Mahavishnu Orchestra. He then shocked people with his next project, John McLaughlin and Shakti, an acoustic fusion of the Carnatak music of South India combined with some Western influences. After three albums, he disbanded the group and went in different directions before revisiting the genre 20 years later in 1999 with Remember Shakti, for ...

Album Review

Shakti: This Moment

Read "This Moment" reviewed by Ian Patterson

by Ian Patterson
June 12, 2023

It has been a while alright. 46 years have slipped by since Shakti's last studio album, but the band founded by John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain in late '73, is back to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The old road dogs could easily have marked the milestone by touring the back catalogue, and doubtless it would have been a roaring success, but it says a lot for McLaughlin and Hussain's artistic drive that they chose instead to write an album's worth ...

Album Review

Shakti: This Moment

by Ian Patterson
April 23, 2023

Forty-six years is a hefty chunk of time between studio releases. Half a lifetime, in fact. Shakti, however, is no ordinary band. The lengthy hiatuses that have punctuated the pioneering Indo-jazz band's fifty-year journey have not dimmed the collaborative flame of co-founders John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain. Following its 2012-13 tour, they placed the dust covers over the band-- redubbed Remember Shakti in 1997--once more. That hiatus soon seemed set to be permanent following the premature death of mandolinist Uppalapu ...

Interview

Zakir Hussain: Making Music, Part 2-2

by Ian Patterson
August 12, 2021

Part 1 | Part 2 It seemed inevitable that Zakir Hussain would collaborate with jazz musicians as the '70s unfolded. Jazz had been sidling up to Indian classical music gradually since the early '60s. In 1962, Gary Peacock and Bud Shank played on Ravi Shankar's album Improvisations (World Pacific), although this was very much a Shankar album; flautist Shank played in Indian style, while Peacock's presence was subdued. The sitar also gravitated towards jazz, ...

Interview

Zakir Hussain: Making Music, Part 1-2

by Ian Patterson
July 22, 2021

"Everybody wants to play with Zakir. He's amazing..." The words were spoken by Herbie Hancock, one of many musicians who paid tribute to the great Indian tabla player and composer Zakir Hussain on the occasion of his Lifetime Achievement Award from the San Francisco Jazz Centre in 2017. In a short film made for the occasion, directed by Hussain's daughter, Anisa Qureshi, jazz luminaries Vijay Iyer, Eric Harland, Charles Lloyd and John McLaughlin paid glowing tribute to Hussain, ...

Recording

John McLaughlin And Zakir Hussain's Groundbreaking Shakti Gets A Grammy Nomination For 'This Moment'

Source: MAD Ink PR
December 16, 2023

Shakti, the recently reconvened global fusion trailblazers, have been nominated for the 2024 GRAMMY Award for Best Global Music Album for This Moment—the group’s first new studio album in more than 45 years, released on June 30, 2023, on the Abstract Logix label. “After our most successful tour ever of three continents, Shakti gets a GRAMMY nomination for our album This Moment…” reacted to co-founding guitarist and composer John McLaughlin. “We are thrilled and delighted beyond words.” “Our 2023 world ...
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Festival

The 25th Istanbul Jazz Festival: June 26 to July 17, 2018

Source: IKSV Media Relations
May 14, 2018

Organised by the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) and sponsored by Garanti Bank, the Istanbul Jazz Festival celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2018. The festival will once again host leading names and new discoveries from the world of jazz, as well as the stars of contemporary music between 26 June and 17 July 2018. The festival will feature more than 250 names in 27 different venues around Istanbul. The 25th Istanbul Jazz Festival will offer a festival experience ...
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Education

Music Education Monday: "Jazz Fusion Master Class" with Zakir Hussain

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
January 4, 2016

Percussionist Zakir Hussain is known as a virtuoso of the tabla who has spent his career bridging Indian classical music and jazz, in the process helping to invent and popularize the notion of “world music." Hussain (pictured) was a co-founder of the band Shakti with John McLaughlin and L. Shankar, and in addition to leading his own groups also has performed and recorded with many other well-known musicians from diverse traditions, including Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart's groups Diga Rhythm ...
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Performance / Tour

Famed Indian Tabla Player and Composer Zakir Hussain Performs at the Annenberg Center

Source: AAJ Staff
March 16, 2012

Philadelphia, PA: He has been called “a fearsome technician but also a whimsical inventor, devoted to exuberant play," by the New York Times. Considered a national treasure of his native India, Zakir Hussain's renowned percussion skills have made him an international phenomenon. A classical tabla virtuoso of the highest order, Hussain's music is described as “intoxicating in its intensity," with a “virtuosity that is barely to be believed" (Washington Post). Backed by his Masters of Tradition, an accomplished cast in ...
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Award / Grant

World Without Walls by Ancient Future with Zakir Hussain Nominated Best World Album of 2011

Source: Matthew Montfort
February 16, 2012

Ancient Future Receives Best World Music Album of the Year Nomination from ZoneMusicReporter World Without Walls by Ancient Future with special guest Zakir Hussain was nominated by broadcasters worldwide as ZoneMusicReporter's Best World Album of 2011. The record debuted at #39 on the October 2011 ZMR Airplay Chart, which covers many different radio genres, from Ambient to Folk, Jazz, and World, and at #34 on the CMJ New World Chart in November 2011. Radio broadcasters who report to the ZoneMusicReporter ...
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Recording

Abstract Logix to release New Universe Music Festival double-CD compilation featuring John McLaughlin, Jimmy Herring, Lenny White, Wayne Krantz, Zakir Hussain and more on July 19, 2011

Source: Michael Ricci
June 9, 2011

On November 20 and 21, 2010, maverick record label Abstract Logix hosted a series of spectacular performances, featuring an array of artists who handily defy genre categorization in favor of unbridled expression. The first New Universe Music Festival, primarily sponsored by Godin Guitars and DIY Music was a die-hard music lover's dream, defined by artists who seamlessly mingle compositional ingenuity and improvisational grace and fervor. A double-CD compilation will be released on July 19, 2011, featuring pioneering guitarist John McLaughlin ...
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Recording

Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain & Edgar Meyer Conjure a New Sound

Source: All About Jazz
August 7, 2009

On August 25th, E1 Music will release The Melody of Rhythm, an unparalleled collaboration between banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck, composer and double-bass master Edgar Meyer and Zakir Hussain.

Arguably the world's greatest tabla player, followed by a 19-city tour of North American concert halls in September and October.

An understanding of musical tradition has led all three of these musical explorers to this common crossroad. “When I play with Zakir, I’m not an Indian musician but I can learn enough ...
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164

Performance / Tour

Mickey Hart & Zakir Hussain "Global Drum Project" at the Keswick Theatre on October 22, 2007

Source: All About Jazz
October 4, 2007

The innovative and long-time Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart and tabla master Zakir Hussain reunite as the GLOBAL DRUM PROJECT, touring behind their new album by the same name that hits the streets Oct. 2. Along with talking-drum ace Sikiru Adepoju and the formidable conguero Giovanni Hidalgo, they celebrate the 15th anniversary of their critically acclaimed album Planet Drum, which earned the first-ever Grammy Award in the World Music category, stopping at Glenside's Keswick Theatre on Mon., Oct. 22, @ ...
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169

Performance / Tour

Mickey Hart & Zakir Hussain Reunite 15 Years: Sept-Oct Tour Dates Announced

Source: Michael Bloom Media Relations
September 17, 2007

AFTER THE GRAMMY-WINNING PLANET DRUM: GLOBAL DRUM PROJECT In stores October 2 Over three decades as the innovative percussion engine of the Grateful Dead, Mickey Hart's ear for global sounds brought numerous unpredictable guests to the Dead's stage performances. Hart's 1991 release Planet Drum was the natural outgrowth of this adventure, showcasing his gift as a supreme catalyst in convening the world's finest percussion talent for a dazzling collaboration - including Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, ...
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Performance / Tour