Zakir Hussain passed :( As a kid I spent countless hours playing tabla while listening to cassettes of Hussain and would try to emulate him He played with Beatles, Grateful Dead etc, made it cool for me to play an Indian hand drum His Jugalbandi (improv duets) were legendary:

The best Jugalabandi's were with his dad, Ustad Alla Rakha. watch this!

"Indian hand drum" 💀 even "naan bread" was accorded more dignity.

he also had rockstar charisma. Saw him live in Dubai in high school, and after the show when he saw us (he had no idea who we were), he said "hey boys! there you are!" and put his arm around us. 🐐🐐🐐

@om wrote a nice tribute

This jugalbandhi you posted with Rahul Sharma reminds of one of the best live shows I've ever seen. Rahul's father, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma and Zakir Hussain live in Carnegie Hall 2007. May his soul rest in peace.

thank you for sharing this, sheel. zakir was insanely talented. i think i need to start learning tabla...

The 'wah taj' Taj Mahal tea ads from the 90's are still fresh like it was yesterday. What a huge loss :( The one and only Tabla Maestro - RIP Legend!!

Rock star - grateful to have seen him twice 2 summers ago with Shakti

Yes this is very sad to hear. When I was young I was fortunate to listen to him play with Ustad Allah Rakha and that Jugalbandi was God level. I didn’t know he was at SF hospital when he died.

He actually moved to the bay area! My aunt worked closely with him for production of his shows, so got to see him perform growing up. His passing is a huge hit on Indian classical music, he was inseparable from the idea of tabla itself