Zakir Hussain, peerless Indian tabla player, dies at 73

SAN FRANCISCO – Zakir Hussain, a peerless Indian tabla player who transcended genres and brought classical Indian music to a global audience, died on Dec 15. He was 73.

He died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease, in San Francisco in the United States, where he lived, his family said in a statement.

Considered a national treasure in his native India, Hussain won four Grammy Awards and collaborated with a range of superstar artistes who included French-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, American jazz master Charles Lloyd, the late Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar and the late George Harrison of English rock band The Beatles.

Hussain was born Zakir Allaraka Qureshi on March 9, 1951, in Bombay, now Mumbai. His father was tabla master Alla Rakha Qureshi, better known as Alla Rakha or sometimes Allarakha. Zakir’s mother Bavi Begum changed his surname to Hussain a few days after he was born, on the advice of a Muslim saint, he said.

Hussain was a child prodigy who began performing concerts on the tabla by age seven and was touring by age 12, according to the US National Endowment for the Arts, which gave him a fellowship.

Both father and son were given the honorific Ustad, which means master. Together, they helped elevate the status of the tabla, a pair of Indian drums played by hand, from an accompanying instrument to one played by virtuosos.

In 2009, Zakir Hussain performed four sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Earlier in 2024, he won Grammy Awards for contemporary instrumental album, global music album and global music performance. In 2009, he won the best contemporary world music album award.

Hussain is survived by his wife, Antonia Minnecola; his daughters, Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi; his brothers, Taufiq Qureshi and Fazal Qureshi, also tabla players; and his sister, Khurshid Aulia, according to his family. NYTIMES