Zakir Hussain - Rough Guide To Zakir Hussain '2018

Tracks list

The world’s best loved tabla player, Zakir Hussain, has transformed the
instrument with his exquisite virtuosity and irresistible charm. With a lifetime
of musical wit and wisdom, he celebrates the art of communicating in rhythm.

When experimental US composer, Conlon Nancarrow wrote his studies for the
self-playing player piano or pianola, he deliberately composed beyond the
capabilities of human performance. With electronic or digital drums or digital
percussion, technology and programming created new possibilities and turned many
into slaves to the algorithm. With what tabla maestro Zakir Hussain achieves,
all it takes is two hands, tuned percussion and a lifetime of ferocious musical
wit and invention. He brings new dimensions of eloquence and muscularity to
talking in rhythm.

When compiling this selection of soliloquies, colloquies and magic, Ken Hunt
chose performances revealing varying sides of Zakir Hussain’s music,
personality and virtuosity. They show this foremost master of Indian
rhythmicality revitalising and renewing the art of rhythm accompaniment in the
roles of soloist, duettist and ensemble player. Bookending the anthology, Tabla
Taal – Char Taal ki Sawari and Punjabi Dhamar – Teental (Drut)
feature bols rhythm syllable recitation, in which reciting the composition is
followed by duplicating its notes on tabla.

Deliberately Zakir Hussain is shown in good, glad and grand company. On raga
Kirwani he is in tandem with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma, the musician who raised
the santoor – a modified Kashmiri folk instrument – to the global
concert stage. On raga Gara he accompanies the outstanding sitar maestro Ustad
Vilayat Khan. On Tabla Taal – Ek Taal he and his father, Alla Rakha
reveal themselves as fire-breathing dragons as they inexorably transport
listeners to the piece’s delicious finale and resolution. By contrast,
inverting the usual percussion and melody instrument role, on Punjabi Dhamar
– Teental (Drut) the sarangi visionary Ustad Sultan Khan takes the
supportive lehara or lehra role to Zakir Hussain’s exceptional front-man
role. That last performance brings this party back to its roots and the Punjab
gharana (school or style) of tabla playing which grounded his father with an
exciting Punjabi rhythmical composition.

It is no exaggeration to say Zakir Hussain is most famous and consummate
Indo-Pakistani rhythmist chameleon ever. (And ever is a big word.) For him,
tabla was yet another language to learn and master. ‘When I’m
playing tabla and teaching tabla and talking to the students, I’m trying
to tell them to think of it as a language. To think of it the same as Hindi or
English, Punjabi or Urdu or Farsi. And to try to imagine that, when
you’re playing, you’re not playing rhythms and not just playing
patterns. You’re composing a sentence. You are writing an essay or
forming a paragraph. You’re telling a story in that language and speaking
in that way. Or singing a song in that story or reciting a poem in that story in
that language.’

Listen to this collection like an anthology of stories. He has tales, some tall
tales to tell.

Tracklist:
01. Zakir Hussain - Tabla Taal - Char Taal Ki Sawari
02. Zakir Hussain - Kirwani
03. Zakir Hussain - Gara
04. Zakir Hussain & Allah Rakha - Ek Taal (Live)
05. Zakir Hussain - Punjabi Dhamar - Teental (Drut) Mishra Ghara

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