Disappearance
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The legendary percussionist, known for making his traditional instrument beloved around the world, died at the age of 73 in San Francisco.
Make Music. This was the challenge of a summit meeting around Zakir Hussain's tablas, in a session for the ECM label which will be a landmark. Nearly forty years later, at the time of the announcement of the Indian's death in a San Francisco hospital, where he lived for part of the year, it was this disc simply called Making Music which comes to mind. At his side the flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia, the guitarist John McLaughlin and the saxophonist Jan Garbarek, three musicians in tune with this intention which sounds like a natural obviousness, beyond all quarrels of chapels. No one here denies its origins, everyone invites us to invent another universe, a jazz that no longer really has the name, a world music not yet formatted marketing product. Let's call it music.
«God is sound»this slogan that he wore on a t-shirt recalls the deep nature of the man who one day will become the fakir of the tablas, a ustad (master) celebrated by his peers. How could it be otherwise when we know that Zakir Hussain Allaraka Qureshi, born on March 9, 1951 in Mumbai, is the eldest son of Ustad Allah Rakha Khan, the Himalayan of tablas. It is from this master of time in Hindustani music that he will learn a lot, bathed in “an atmosphere where music was present 24 hours a day”. So much so that at 7 years old, he is already on stage, and soon on tour.
Listening to others
“The tabla player is a bit like a p
