Zakir Hussain’s annual tribute to his abbaji on the day he passed away (February 3), is a day-long a musical marathon. The event is known to bring together musicians of eclectic styles each year. Last year, the Grammy-nominated banjo player Bela Fleck and jazz/bluegrass double bass player Edgar Myer had come down. This year, Khol drummers from Kolkata, the Panchratna Sanai Tafa Mandal from Nagar and gospel percussionist Lil John Roberts from the US will feature in this cultural happening.
For Zakir though, the event transcends the memory of his father. “It’s not then about my father. This is about a celebration of the art that he represented and he loved and the passion that he had for his culture. So, it’s nice to celebrate that culture and the effect that music had on our lives.”
While a show of this length can be exhausting, he is quite clear that performing is his lifeblood. “I actually feel elated when I play. I’ve arrived on stage tired and left the stage replenished. Playing music is the easiest thing. It’s not the hardest thing. That’s because we love doing it. It’s all the other paraphernalia that tires you out. Packing bags, arriving at the airport, going through security, fighting about excess baggage… All that stuff. The travel part of the touring is tiring. The performance is really the most fun part of the whole day. It inspires us to be able to deal with all the other stuff that goes on,” he says, continuing, “Music is really having a great renaissance time in india. Lots of young musicians are finally being noticed and focussed upon.”
He also elaborates on what playing solo and with a group of musicians means to him. “Playing the tabla solo, I am sharing with people centuries of this particular tradition, ragas, that I have learned and grown up with. Whenever I play a solo gig, I draw on memories of great maestros of the past. In my mind, I go, ‘okay, this is from this past maestro, this from that maestro’ and I bring that same piece of music that existed ages ago, into the present moment. Playing solo is fun but when I play live in a group, I enjoy the challenge of bouncing ideas off other musicians. Playing live is also different when you play with a singer or play only instrumentals in a group. When I play with a singer I need a particular pitch, it’s got to be in a particular way so as not to overpower the vocals. You won’t play the same as with a ghazal player than how you’d play with a sitar player. ”
While jamming and improvisations might be what fuels him, he also feels that live shows are a form of theatre. “Some of the performances at the Grammys this year were like theatre productions. That whole thing emerged since Michael Jackson’s Thriller. To me, he really pioneered that art… It requires much more production than say, a camera close up of Keith Urban playing the guitar compared to a Madonna doing Like a Virgin. You’ve got to get in your costume, you’ve got to be in the right place on the stage at the right time when the spot comes on ‘x’ area of the stage and then perform without a hint of self-consciousness,” he concludes.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Music> Zakir Hussain / by Reagan Gavin Rasquinha, TNN / February 01st, 2014