Return of the rhythm method

By P.Ramakrishnan


Indian tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain is looking forward to his return to Hong Kong on Saturday. In 2002 he joined George Brooks' Summit in the New Vision Arts Festival's The King Drummers shows in the city; it was a memorable gig, he says.


'The performance had multiple elements of art all fusing. I had never done anything like that before and haven't since,' he says.

'It was great fun - all the elements of art on a stage: Indian music, the symphony, a few painters who were painting around us while we were performing, with a jazz group and images of jazz legends in the background. It was all happening at the same time and it was truly eclectic.'

Hussain says he is used to such collaborations, having worked with the likes of George Harrison, Joe Henderson, Tito Puente, Van Morrison and the Kodo drummers. Such performances expand his global audiences beyond fans of Indian classical music, the Mumbai-born musician says.

'You know it's funny, when Bollywood movie stars tour, the audience is mostly full of non-resident-Indians awaiting their screen idols and beauties,' Hussain says with a chuckle.

'When we tour in the US, it's a greater mix of western [often more than eastern] audiences. The last time that we performed in New York it was an ocean of westerners and I was looking for the homeland heads through the blinding stage lights. I'm glad that our music is equally well-received by the international crowd,' he says.
Hussain has the pump of percussion in his blood. The son of tabla master Allah Rakha, he grew up in a house filled with music by his father's troupe. From an early age he made his own music by beating pots and still likes to rattle a metal plate, two glasses and a spoon in a spontaneous jig, he says.

'As I heard music all day at home, I believe music can be made with anything, any time, anywhere!' Hussain says.

He started playing the tabla 'as soon as he could reach one', performed his first concert at seven and started touring when he was 12. He says he was 'nearly 13' when he stood in for a musician who was ill and played with his father for the first time on stage.

'You never forget your first performance,' Hussain says of his 'first great moment' under a spotlight. 'I love the improvisational aspect of performing live on stage.'
But not all his early performances went so well.

'When I was 16, I went to play a festival and I was booed off stage!' Hussain says. 'It was strange - the night before was an incredible success. I was the darling of the press, a teen with a following and I could do no wrong. Oh my God, it was thrilling ... and then you get a kick in the butt like that!'

Hussain laughs at the memory but says such setbacks are important life lessons.
'You have to push yourself,' he says. 'It's great to be booed off. It brings you down to earth. Then you start thinking of expanding your repertoire, you have that pressure to improve, to be better than before.'

The boos also remind the children of celebrities that they have to make their own mark, he says.

'There's only so much mercy clapping you'll get [from] an audience,' he says. 'The audience is kind, but patronising only to a certain extent - you'd better be good at the job or they won't care who your father, mother, brother or grandfather is!'
Hussain recalls how he used to sit around discussing music with his father at 3am.

'My dad would have these epiphanies at some late hour and he'd sit with me and go over music,' he says. 'It used to drive my mother up the wall as I'd have school the next day, but late into the night, into the very early morning, we'd discuss raagas, thumri and different beats.'

And Hussain is still exploring different sounds. 'You have to listen to folk music to become aware of what the people are about,' he says. 'You understand that culture a bit better, how they communicate. I listen to folk music of the world, the blues, bluegrass, church music ... Even to understand true Indian music, I prefer to put my ear to the sounds that are closer to the land.'

Hussain doesn't say what's on his iPod, but he seems to sense the rhythm of the global financial meltdown. 'Lately I've been hearing the rumblings and crashes of the stock market,' he says. 'I'm sure the repercussions have hit Hong Kong long before our percussion show.'





Zakir Hussain, Masters Of Percussion, Sat, 7.30pm, Queen Elizabeth Stadium, HK$200-HK$600. Inquiries: 6019 0621 or 9641 8214


Published in South China Morning Post
Sunday October 26 2008