A freewheeling interview with Zakir Hussain, widely hailed as one of the greatest percussionists of our time.
Zakir Hussain is the son of Alla Rakha, the charismatic tabla player who helped Ravi Shankar capture a Western Audience (hint: you’ve seen him if checked out the Woodstock movie.) By the time Zakir was 11 he was touring and soon made a name for himself accompanying the legends of Hindustani music such as Ali Akbar Khan, Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Shiv Kumar Sharma and Ravi Shankar himself. After he came to the United States in 1969 Zakir began a career that transcended traditional musical barriers – he is now a singular global music force. Beyond his prolific Indian classical music career he blazed new ground with the band Shakti, created Planet Drum with the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, explored adventerous jazz with Sangam, and worked with George Harrison, L Shankar Yo-Yo Ma, Giovanni Hidalgo, Jan Garbarek, Van Morrison…the list keeps going…better to just check out the music and our conversation.