Tabla Legend Zakir Hussain Critical, “Pray For Him”, Says Family

Zakir Hussain, the peerless tabla participant and a number of Grammy award winner, is important and in a US hospital over severe heart-related illnesses, his household mentioned on Sunday.

His supervisor, Nirmala Bachani, mentioned the artist he has been in a San Francisco hospital for the final two weeks.

“My brother is deeply ailing presently. We’re asking for all his followers round India and around the globe to wish for him, to wish for his well being. However as India’s best ever exports, don’t end him off simply but,” Zakir Hussain’s sister Khurshid Aulia advised information company PTI amid a number of experiences that her brother had died.

“I simply wish to request all of the media to not comply with improper details about Zakir’s passing. He’s very a lot respiratory in the mean time. He’s very very important, however he is nonetheless with us. He has not but gone. So, I’ll request (the media) to not unfold this hearsay by writing or saying that he has handed away. I really feel so unhealthy watching all this data on Fb which could be very improper,” she added.

“He’s unwell and admitted within the ICU proper now. All of us are nervous in regards to the scenario,” Zakir Hussain’s pal and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia additionally advised the information company.

Union Ministers, Chief Ministers and others posted on X paying tributes to the tabla maestro amid loss of life experiences although there was no official assertion from Zakir Hussain’s household.

The Ministry of Info and Broadcasting Ministry, which posted in regards to the artist’s loss of life, later deleted its publish on X. 

“I’m Zakir Hussain nephew and he has not handed away. We ask for prayers for my Uncle’s well being. Are you able to please take away this misinformation. He’s in a severe situation and we ask for all his followers around the globe to wish for his well being,” mentioned Ameer Aulia on X.

The Bombay-born eldest son of legendary tabla participant Allah Rakha, Zakir Hussain adopted within the footsteps of his father, changing into a marquee identify in India and internationally.

“Zakir Hussain, the peerless North Indian tabla participant, favors an impish pressure of virtuosity. He is a fearsome technician but in addition a whimsical inventor, dedicated to exuberant play. So he not often appears overbearing, even when the blur of his fingers rivals the beat of a hummingbird’s wings,” wrote New York Instances in regards to the artist when he carried out at Carnegie Corridor in 2009.

As soon as narrating the story of his first reserving, the percussionist mentioned a letter got here to their home providing a live performance date to his father. Zakir wrote again saying that his father wouldn’t have the ability to settle for the engagement however that his son was out there. Nonetheless, he did not point out within the letter that he was solely 13. It labored, and his musical profession was underneath means.

The musician has labored with a number of famend worldwide and Indian artistes, nevertheless it was his 1973 musical undertaking with English guitarist John McLaughlin, violinist L Shankar, and percussionist TH ‘Vikku’ Vinayakram that introduced collectively Indian classical and components of jazz in a fusion hitherto unknown.

The percussionist, certainly one of India’s most celebrated classical musicians, obtained the Padma Shri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2002, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2023.