Zakir Hussain, tabla artist who took classical Indian music global, dies at 73

Zakir Hussain, a prolific Indian musician known for playing the tabla, died on Sunday in San Francisco, his management company confirmed. He was 73.

Tabla, a percussion instrument, is one of the essential ingredients of Indian classical music − and Hussain was widely considered its greatest living virtuoso.

The artist’s cause of death was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, according to a statement shared by his family via Hussain’s management company IMG Artists. The American Lung Association describes the condition as a common type of lung disease in which scarring causes stiffness in the lungs, making breathing difficult.

Hussain was a generational talent, whose music helped introduce classical Indian style to a global audience. In collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Van Morrison and George Harrison, he infused jazz and classic tracks alike with a sense of rhythmic purpose.

“His unique mastery of rhythm allowed him to cross borders freely and create authentic connection between different genres of music,” his family said in the statement.

The son of Ustad Allarakha, a tabla master himself, Hussain learned to play from his father at a young age. Described in the statement as a “child prodigy,” his professional career began early as he began touring internationally with other musicians at 18 years old.

“From the day you’re brought in from the nursing home where you were born you really are inducted,” Hussain said in an interview at Google in 2008. “You don’t have a choice.”

A lifetime of playing created the sense in Hussain’s music that the drums were an extension of him. The architect of the first-ever tabla concerto, “his work raised his instrument to virtuoso status,” the family’s statement said.

Also a composer and music educator, Hussain received three Grammy Awards in one night − he boasts four wins overall. Other accolades garnered throughout his six-decade career include the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1999 and SFJazz’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

“He leaves behind an unparalleled legacy as a cultural ambassador and one of the greatest musicians of all time,” the statement reads.

Hussain is survived by his wife, Antonia Minnecola; his daughters, Anisa Qureshi and Isabella Qureshi; and his siblings, Taufiq Qureshi, Fazal Qureshi and Khurshid Aulia.