Zakir Hussain (musician)

"You open London Times and you find reviews of Western classical music concerts finding pride of place even if the concerts themselves have less than 200 people in a hall meant for 1,500. They do this …"

"Suddenly I am like the poster boy of music, but I think the whole idea is to realise how deep is the base of Indian art and culture, how many fabulous young artistes there are, how many incredible gre…"

"At seventeen Hussain went on forty-day self-imposed retreat known as a chilla, where a musician practices in isolation until a state is reached in which the music and musician become one. The removal …"

"There are incredible number of great Indian artists around like Aditya Kalyanpur, Subhankar Banerjee, Satyajit Talwakar, Amaan and Ayan, among women are Anuradha Pal and others. It is great that such …"

"I’d have to say that accompanying vocalists is tougher, especially if you are with artistes of the calibre of Pt Jasraj or Vidushi Kishori Amonkar. The first 45 minutes can be very involved, intense a…"

"I remember I was once booed off the stage on day one of a festival at Nagpur within half an hour and the same audiences were eating off my hands the next within the first seven or eight minutes. Every…"

"Zakir bhai is indeed a phenomenon of our times. It is not surprising that young tabla players are inspired or influenced by him but cloning will only give them a temporary impetus."

"If it weren’t for the masters we wouldn’t have audiences for Indian classical music across the world. As for taking their mission forward, we have a long way to go."