Kala Ramnath, Hindustani classical violinist
The Ustad was known to have mentored several musicians, prominent among them being Hindustani classical violinist and Bay Area resident, Vidushi Kala Ramnath. Ramnath lost her mentor and friend on the same day she lost her father, a film musician, over 45 years ago.
“He was like an angel who came into my life after my dad died,” recalls Ramnath, who was barely 11 at the time.
Zakir Hussain was pivotal in Ramnath’s transformation into the “Singing Violin” she is known as today. “When I was around 15 years old, Zakir bhai told me, ‘If you play like your aunt [classical violinist N. Rajam], who’s going to listen to you, a copy of her? You have to bring originality to your music,’” she recalls him saying. The comment changed the course of Ramnath’s career, driving her to train in classical vocal under another maestro, Pandit Jasraj.
Recalling Hussain as a fun, joyous performer and person, Ramanath said, “He told me you must be joyous on stage and that should transfer to the listeners… So that is how I learned to smile on stage.”
As inimitable as he was as a musician, Zakir Hussain was an unparalleled human being, says Ramnath. “He revolutionized tabla playing and brought it to the forefront of all instruments. But the human being that he was… he was godly. His kindness, his humbleness, his empathy towards people… that was his most beautiful aspect,” she said.
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Sandip Roy, ex-India Currents writer, remembers Ustad Zakir Hussain
Writing in rediff.com in The Global Ambassador Of Indian Music, Roy says, “He was a formidable musician but seemed utterly human, a Peter Pan who wore his genius with deceptive lightness.”
The loss to the world of music is huge. The obituaries struggle to do justice to the man who had won Grammys (three this year alone), the National Endowment for the Arts’ National Heritage Fellowship, Japan’s Kyoto Prize as well as India’s Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan.
His artistry spanned continents. His obituary on National Public Radio called him a legend who defied genres.
He made thousands of Indian immigrants like me feel at home in a place like California.
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Paul Z Livingstone, sitar player, composer, bassist, and 40 year disciple of Indian classical ragas
Paul Livingstone pays tribute to Ustad Zakir Hussain in ‘The Bewildering Spirit and Charisma of Zakir Hussain.’
Having listened to Zakir Hussain in countless concerts and on hundreds of records, it’s undeniable that he possessed some kind of rare musical clairvoyance. He wielded a kind of prescience that enabled him to know what the other musicians were going to do.
Zakir was a phenomenon, who always made sure that he always stayed relevant to himself and to the world. He twice undertook a ‘chilla’, a 40-day traditional ascetic ritual in which an Indian musician takes to practice alone non-stop, except to eat and sleep. He gave his life to music as his father did before him. Here was an artist who became the music, he embodied tabla to the point that he disappeared into the drums. He often looked toward the sky as he played with that face of complete immersion, of joyful abandon, like some kind of child mystic, a musical seer who had tapped into something that others were not privy to. It seemed that in his face you could tell he was seeing something up there, drawing him towards the infinite. As Jesus taught, ‘you must be like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven’, he seemed to do that naturally and this childlike nature was part of his captivating presence. What was coming out of that simple pair of drums could be an incredibly complex matrix of rhythmic intricacy, and yet, within that sophistication, he infused the deepest sense of playfulness.
