Dec 16, 2024 08:16 PM IST
Hussain was loved not only by connoisseurs but also by lay listeners, in Indian and abroad. In this respect, he has no parallel among Indian classical musicians.
A baba came to Ustad Alla Rakha’s house the day his wife delivered their first son. As per the family’s tradition, the boy should have carried the surname Qureshi, but the baba said the boy must be named after Hazrat Imam Hussain, the grandson of the Prophet, as the boy might become a fakir (wandering ascetic) in future. The boy who would have been Zakir Qureshi, thus became Zakir Hussain, who, over half a century, brought an evergreen musical spring to the tabla. In the process, he also gave a distinct identity and individuality to thetabla artist, who until then had mostly been relegated to the role of an accompanist.
Upon hearing of Hussain passing away, I was reminded of a tribute by American drummer-musician Dave Grohl to John Bonham, one of western percussion’s all-time greats: “John Bonham played the drums like someone who didn’t know what was going to happen next — like he was teetering on the edge of a cliff. No one has come close to that since, and I don’t think anybody ever will. I think he will forever be the greatest drummer of all time.”
In a 1964 interview, Ustad Ahmed Jan Thirakwa, possibly the first acclaimed tabla soloist, contested an assumption that placed tabla further to pakhavaj in Indian percussion evolution: The origin of tabla has always attracted contesting views. Be that as it may, the instrument remained the principal percussion ingredient in North Indian folk and classical music since the 18th century, and Hussain will be remembered as its most cherished global face.
In the early 20th century, a trinity revolutionised mridangam playing in South Indian classical music: Palakkad Mani Iyer, Palani Subramanya Pillai, and Ramanathapuram GS Murugabhoopathy. All three started giving solo performances along with accompanying vocalists. We see a parallel in the Hindustani classical tradition in Ustad Alla Rakha, Pandit Samta Prasad, and Pandit Kishan Maharaj. Of course, Thirakwa towered as a visionary predecessor. But all these artists, whether in the North or the South, were mostly heard by seasoned or skillful classical music lovers.
However, it was Hussain who expanded the audience of Indian percussion phenomenally. His teen taal only had 16 beats, but its appeal among the masses made it a favourite of different kinds of listeners. What Pandit Ravi Shankar did with the sitar, Hussain did through the tabla. While the former had the raga as a bridge to ears not tuned to Indian classical music, Hussain had the tala. Both charmed the West as well and brought a stamp of universality to the soundscape of Indian swaras and talas. Hussain got all accolades that mark a successful Indian classical musician’s life: Padma Shri in 1988, Padma Bhushan in 2002, and Padma Vibhushan in 2023. He also won five Grammys.
Ustad Zakir Hussain belonged to the Punjab gharana, one of the six major traditions in tabla. The Punjab gharana’s lineage places Lal Bhavanidas as its founder, followed by Mian Qadir Baksh-I. Hussain’s father, Alla Rakha, was the disciple of Mian Qadir Baksh-II. Alla Rakha was a staff artist with the Lahore Radio Station in 1936 and shifted to Bombay in 1938. Hussain blossomed into early fame because of his talim under a very strict, disciplined, and talented Guru-baap (teacher-father). “I think I was about nine. He slapped me because I had broken my third finger while playing cricket. And that was a no-no as far he was concerned. I was going to use those hands to play the tabla. When he slapped me, I had tears in my eyes. He gave me a hug and got me a plate of dahi batata puri from a nearby Sindhi chaat shop,” he once told author and TV producer-director Nasreen Munni Kabir. “My father used to wake me up at 3 am. He would teach me vocally. We didn’t play (the tabla). We just sang rhythms back and forth. That’s how we spent the hours between three and six in the morning,” he added.
Hussain’s persona had elements of the dance of the dervishes, a contagion of happiness and celebration without affecting the dervish’s personality. A detached fakir shows through in his flamboyant artistic life. Not surprisingly, he found it funny when women readers of a magazine (Gentleman) voted him as the sexiest man in India.
Hussain was loved not only by connoisseurs but also by lay listeners, in Indian and abroad. In this respect, he has no parallel among Indian classical musicians.
S Gopalakrishnan is a writer, broadcaster, and founder of the podcast, Dilli Dali.The views expressed are personal
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