Zakir Hussain, who did his schooling from Mumbai, stays in San Francisco now.
Mumbai:
He may be one of the greatestpercussionists around but tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain iswary of being seen as the "torchbearer" of Indian classicalmusic.
"As far as Indian music is concerned I wouldn't callmyself a torchbearer. It's the media that focuses on it, likeat one time Pandit Ravi Shankar was the poster boy of Indianmusic. It did not matter that there were equally good sitarplayers in India that time. Everybody talked about him and notothers like Pandit Nikhil Banerjee or Ustad Ali Anwar Khan,","Zakir Hussain told PTI
Music runs in Zakir's blood as his father Alla Rakha wasthe legendary tabla player. Zakir Hussain, who was touring by theage of 12, did his schooling and graduation in Mumbai andlater went to the US in 1970 that marked the beginning of hisinternational career.
"Similarly people talk about me now but they don'trealise that there are equally good tabla players around. Iwouldn't call myself a torchbearer or anything of that sort. Iam just one of those who is able to articulate, may beslightly better than others," the 61-year-old veteran artistesaid.
"May be, by default I have been chosen who speaks onmusic globally. But there are fabulous artistes who deserveto be doing it here.
"Suddenly I am like the poster boy of music, but I thinkthe whole idea is to realise how deep is the base of Indianart and culture, how many fabulous young artistes there are,how many incredible great senior artistes are present todaybut not seen in limelight. We all have our turn at being thespokesperson for something or the other," the renownedmusician said.
"There are incredible number of great Indian artistsaround like Aditya Kalyanpur, Shubhankar Banerjee, SatyajitTalwakar, Amaan and Ayan, among women are Anuradha Pal andothers. It is great that such musicians are around. But themedia has not adopted to give them the push or put them inopen. They deserve to be up there," Zakir Hussain stressed.
Despite a career spanning across over almost half acentury, Zakir Hussain likes to call himself just a drummer.
"What celebrity status, I think I am just a drummer.There are so many talented artists around here," he said.
Zakir Hussain now stays in San Francisco but he keeps visitingIndia every year.
"Every winter I am here sometimes for two or fourmonths. These are my roots, this is where I feel I must cometo grow and learn as an artist. I must always come back to theguru to learn and grow more as a musician. There is noquestion of going anywhere and forgetting where I came frombecause that would be like losing my identity," he said.
"The plan is to always have a plug into my past, where Iam from. And how deep that is and having that gave meconfidence to be able to expand. I am confident that I havesomething (music) that is backing me and that is always therefor me... so that I can explore more, learn and grow more asan artiste and as a musician," he said.
Zakir Hussain has associated his label 'Moment Records' withTimes Music to launch a rich collection of music in India.
'Moments Records' is managed by Zakir Hussain and his wife AntoniaMinnecola and it hosts a wide range of internationallyacclaimed artists and albums.
In addition to Zakir Hussain's own classical and fusionrecordings, the catalogue boasts of recordings of musicstalwart like Pt Ravi Shankar, Ustad Alla Rakha, Pt BhimsenJoshi, Pt Jasraj, Pt Shivkumar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, notedclassical singer Girija Devi among others.
"As far as Indian music is concerned I wouldn't callmyself a torchbearer. It's the media that focuses on it, likeat one time Pandit Ravi Shankar was the poster boy of Indianmusic. It did not matter that there were equally good sitarplayers in India that time. Everybody talked about him and notothers like Pandit Nikhil Banerjee or Ustad Ali Anwar Khan,","Zakir Hussain told PTI
Music runs in Zakir's blood as his father Alla Rakha wasthe legendary tabla player. Zakir Hussain, who was touring by theage of 12, did his schooling and graduation in Mumbai andlater went to the US in 1970 that marked the beginning of hisinternational career.
"Similarly people talk about me now but they don'trealise that there are equally good tabla players around. Iwouldn't call myself a torchbearer or anything of that sort. Iam just one of those who is able to articulate, may beslightly better than others," the 61-year-old veteran artistesaid.
"May be, by default I have been chosen who speaks onmusic globally. But there are fabulous artistes who deserveto be doing it here.
"Suddenly I am like the poster boy of music, but I thinkthe whole idea is to realise how deep is the base of Indianart and culture, how many fabulous young artistes there are,how many incredible great senior artistes are present todaybut not seen in limelight. We all have our turn at being thespokesperson for something or the other," the renownedmusician said.
"There are incredible number of great Indian artistsaround like Aditya Kalyanpur, Shubhankar Banerjee, SatyajitTalwakar, Amaan and Ayan, among women are Anuradha Pal andothers. It is great that such musicians are around. But themedia has not adopted to give them the push or put them inopen. They deserve to be up there," Zakir Hussain stressed.
Despite a career spanning across over almost half acentury, Zakir Hussain likes to call himself just a drummer.
"What celebrity status, I think I am just a drummer.There are so many talented artists around here," he said.
Zakir Hussain now stays in San Francisco but he keeps visitingIndia every year.
"Every winter I am here sometimes for two or fourmonths. These are my roots, this is where I feel I must cometo grow and learn as an artist. I must always come back to theguru to learn and grow more as a musician. There is noquestion of going anywhere and forgetting where I came frombecause that would be like losing my identity," he said.
"The plan is to always have a plug into my past, where Iam from. And how deep that is and having that gave meconfidence to be able to expand. I am confident that I havesomething (music) that is backing me and that is always therefor me... so that I can explore more, learn and grow more asan artiste and as a musician," he said.
Zakir Hussain has associated his label 'Moment Records' withTimes Music to launch a rich collection of music in India.
'Moments Records' is managed by Zakir Hussain and his wife AntoniaMinnecola and it hosts a wide range of internationallyacclaimed artists and albums.
In addition to Zakir Hussain's own classical and fusionrecordings, the catalogue boasts of recordings of musicstalwart like Pt Ravi Shankar, Ustad Alla Rakha, Pt BhimsenJoshi, Pt Jasraj, Pt Shivkumar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, notedclassical singer Girija Devi among others.