Zakir Hussain (March 9, 1951 - Dec. 15, 2024)

Though I didn't realise it at the time, the first time I came across Zakir Hussain would have been on a Southbank Show dedicated to Indo-Fusion band Shakti shortly after John McLaughlin disbanded the Mahavishnu Orchestra Mk 2. Although strictly a soul fan by then, McLaughlin in Mk 1 was, and still is, displaying the most extraordinary musicianship that I've ever seen. When soul music led to jazz fusion, McLaughlin was back on my radar but this time bringing Shakti and Zakir Hussain with him.

I saw McLaughlin in an organ trio in the early nineties, but his playing was strikingly unexceptional compared to the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I saw him again in ‘96 in a North-West town, which may or may not have been Oldham, in a reincarnation of Shakti which, on the ticket, said Zakir Hussain and John McLaughlin. Although he received the greatest applause on entering the stage - which seemed to genuinely surprise him, perhaps because of the large Asian contingency in the audience - his playing was again strikingly extraordinary, given its magnificence on the original Shakti albums.

By contrast, Zakir Hussain was entirely off the scale; every bit the star of the show, and has remained amongst my favourite musicians ever since. (Incidentally I've since seen John numerous times with his Fifth Dimension and he's still brilliant, despite his advancing years, suggesting jazz-rock may well be his forte).

As well as John, L Shankar and the other members of Shakti through its several incantations across almost half a century, Hussain played with former Beatle George Harrison, former Mingus alumni John Handy, Van Morrison, Earth Wind and Fire, Pharoah Sanders, Charles Lloyd, regular collaborations with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, and many more. He also wrote film soundtracks and played on Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam epic Apocalypse Now.   

I would see him twice more, most recently in another version of Shakti and before that at an Edinburgh Jazz Festival with Dave Holland and Chris Potter. A formidable musician himself, saxophonist Potter kept referring to both as maestro: Holland no doubt because he's been around so long and played on one of Miles Davies' most famous albums Bitches Brew, and Hussain because he became inarguably the world's foremost tabla player, who's music extended way beyond Indian classical music and Indo-jazz-fusion, helped popularise world music and transcended any musical boundaries. A virtuoso even amongst fellow tabla players, an instrument that demands virtuosity.

Natural Elements is the most Westernised and my favourite Shakti album. His solo album Making Music, which features John, Jan Garbarek and others is also excellent, as is the one with Holland and Potter entitled Good Hope, and his final album As We Speak with Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer and Rakesh Chawrasia, though I automatically buy any album I come across by him.

He was one of the Special Ones. Steve T.