HE may be one of the world's greatest tabla players, but Ustad Zakir Hussain is not a man who gets caught up in his own reputation.
| Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain enjoying what he does best. |
In town last week on a very brief stopover to plug his concert next month, the 54-year-old tabla maestro took a moment to poke fun at himself.
A tabla - one of India's most popular percussion instruments - was placed before him
at the Indigo Bar in Boat Quay.
A local television news crew wanted him to play for the camera.
With an impish grin and an exaggerated American accent, he said: 'Is this what they call a tabla?'
Once a musical prodigy, Zakir started his touring career at the age of 12 with his father - the late Ustad Alla Rakha who, with Ravi Shankar, was credited with taking Indian classical music to the West.
Zakir himself is known for kick-starting the world music movement by combining Indian classical music with other musical genres such as rock, jazz, and folk.
He has scored the soundtrack for Bernardo Bertolucci's Little Buddha and co-created and produced his 1992 Grammy winning album Planet Drum with Mickey Hart from the veteran rock band, The Grateful Dead.
He also co-composed the opening music for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.
On 5 Feb, he will be performing with percussionists Terry Bozzio and Giovanni
Hidalgo at the Esplanade Concert Hall in a performance called Kaleidoscope of Rhythms.
Joining them will be Salim Merchant, who is one-half of the Salim-Suleiman duo that composed the hit Bollywood soundtrack Dhoom.
Zakir's first concert in Singapore was more than 20 years ago, which he claimed barely made a ripple.
'I came, I played, I left,' he said.
CUT DOWN ON CONCERTS
The maestro used to do 150 concerts a year, but now he has cut down due to his teaching commitments at Princeton University in the US.
'That used to be in my younger days, when I was carefree and rash. I am down to about 120 now,' he said with a smile.
'It's because I have to teach and I am also doing things like scoring music for independent and Hollywood films.'
One of the films he is currently working on is The Goddess, starring Tina Turner.
But his Bollywood involvement is limited. So far, they
have been mostly indie projects such as Rahul Bose's Everybody Says I'm Fine.
He was also featured in and scored Shabana Azmi's 1997 film Saaz (Harmony).
However, Zakir said Bollywood films take too much out of him.
'When you have a small production, like Aparna Sen's, it is all planned from day one. So I am told six months ahead, then I can make the time,' he said.
'When you have big productions such as a YashRaj film or a (Karan) Johar film, you are at their beck and call.
'Things can change anytime.'
Despite his minimal involvement with Bollywood films, their characteristic, vibrant musical style owes a great debt to Zakir's innovations.
INCREASING INFLUENCE
And with Hollywood's increased interest in Asian cinema, his influence is set to broaden.
'There is a lot going on in Hollywood; they are looking at other musical sounds to embellish whatever exists now, which I
think has become very monotonous and dull,' he said.
'There is this need for the Western world to tap into sounds which are mythical, mystical, magical and mysterious.'
Zakir said he is envious of musicians such as AR Rahman of Bombay Dreams and Salim, who have successfully fused Indian classical music with Western styles.
'You can hear a classical Indian song but it has got a rock beat to it. A classical Indian musician would never think - on pain of death - of doing that.
'It is a creative area with no boundaries,' he said.
But he added that Rahman and Salim are able to do it because they know the basics of Indian classical music.
'If Rahman was asked to compose a classical piece of music, he could do it.
'Be it young punk, hip-hop or Indian artists, they all would have to study the basics first,' he said.
But
he is not too crazy about terms like 'world music' and 'new age'.
He said dryly: 'These terms were created by record companies so they can put a label on the shelves.
'We as musicians are not to be blamed for these terms.'
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