Zakir Hussain 

- Compelling Beats

interviewed by

Sanjeeb Mukherjee

My father was my friend, philosopher, guide and above all my guru. He had an unflinching love for tabla. It was the reason for his existence….his life. If by chance I can be half as good as him I will consider myself fortunate and blessed.

I wanted to bring tabla out of the realms of just being an accompanying instrument, my aim was to give it the same status as enjoyed by other instruments. Today the tabla has its separate musical identity throughout the world, which I feel is its rightful place.

Actually I was misquoted. What I said or meant was that I was just planning to cut down on my assignments. Some misinterpreted it as I was quitting playing tabla, which is absolutely rubbish. How can I stop playing tabla, it is as vital for me as air which I breathe.

I can talk only of tabla. Promotion cannot be of any help if you are not talented. Not that I mean that the present crop of artists are in any way less talented. There are some excellent artists like Akram, Rashid, Aditya, Anuradha Pal. But for them to gain name and fame will take some time. I too had to toil hard for years to get to my present position. Above all no tabla player can be a soloist at the very onset. He or she has to first start as an accompanist and then move on to solo performances.

The name of a parent can’t help if an artist is not talented. Artists like myself, or Amjad Khan’s sons, Amaan and Ayaan or even Anouskha Shankar, have become famous because we have ourselves toiled hard at honing our talents. You cannot pull crowds by simply invoking the name of your father or mother.

The re-grouping has been extremely heartening. We have also cut a new album, which has been very well received. In fact it has been nominated amongst the five best world albums. We have also done three hugely successful tours.

The pattern that I have adopted is nothing new, even well known Ustads have played a mix of many styles. If you belong to a certain gharana that does bind you with that style and stop you from experimenting. Gharanas only provide you with the base upon which an artist has to build his or her own style. And this trend is more pronounced in case of instrumentalists.

Not in the near future. I did Saaz because I liked the script and it was being made by a very close friend, Sai Paranjape. I feel that I’m a better tabla player than an actor. I prefer a different kind of association with films---music. I have occasionally given music for films like Ismail Merchant’s In Custody and for Bernardo Bertolucci’s Little Buddha.

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