Page 41 - Seniors Today - March Issue
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John McLaughlin with Zakir Hussain in a Remember Shakti concert
Besides the sheer magic in his fingers and a balance between serious talk and quick
his magnetic stage persona, what has been humour. Even at shows, he could suddenly
impressive about Hussain is the ease with have the crowd in splits. Once, a dignitary
which he moves across genres. He has a walked in with his entourage during the
very open mind, and that is something I middle of his performance. Hussain didn’t
discovered early on during my interactions stop, but adapted to play as though he was
with him as a journalist. mimicking the VIP. The crowd enjoyed the
fun, but the guest never got it.
Wit and versatility During interviews, Hussain would often
I first met Hussain in 1997, at a press tell anecdotes about Ustad Allarakha’s
conference held before ace jazz keyboardist interactions with sitar maestro Pandit Ravi
Joe Zawinul’s concert at Rang Bhavan in Shankar and drummer Buddy Rich, or
Mumbai. Zakir was to appear as a guest explain the salient features of the Punjab
artiste, and though the focus was on Zawinul, gharana which he represented. He would
some of us introduced ourselves on the side. always praise tabla players from other
I was to write a concert review, and quickly schools, and talk of global percussion masters
realised that though they played some like Hart, Giovanni Hidalgo, Sikiru Adepoju,
amazing music, they didn’t announce the Leonard Eto, Billy Cobham and Vinnie
names of the pieces. During the interval, Colauita.
I tried to go to the green room by walking Once, to surprise him, I asked him to name
across the stage. “Mr Mid-Day,” a voice called, his five favourite musicians ever. He said
addressing the newspaper I worked for. It was since Ustad Allarakha would be on top
Hussain. He continued, “Don’t walk across anyway, he would like to name five others.
the stage but go that way. If you trip on those Quickly, he replied, “Shivkumar Sharma,
wires, they won’t bother about you. But it will McLaughlin, Kishori Amonkar (vocalist),
take them three hours to fix everything for the Charlie Parker (jazz great) and Madan Mohan
second half.” (film composer).”. Quickly, he smiled and
I was to encounter those kinds of witty said, “Call me again tomorrow, and I’ll name
remarks quite often, but he knew how to draw Jimi Hendrix (rock guitarist) and four others.”
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #21 | MARCH 2021 41