ZAKIR HUSSAIN
FIVE KEY COLLABORATIONS

January 9, 2017 | by SFJAZZ

2017 SFJAZZ Gala honoree Zakir Hussain

Zakir Hussain has made many historic and groundbreaking contributions in music. Here's a look at five key collaborations throughout his career.

1. Shakti
Shakti stands as a high water mark of East-Meets-West collaborations – a live document of the 1975 performance at Long Island’s Southampton College with Hussain, British jazz guitarist John McLaughlin, violinist L. Shankar, and percussionists Ramnad Raghavan and T.H. Vinayakaram that, despite being entirely acoustic, displays as much fiery interplay and bewilderingly telepathic ensemble playing as McLaughlin’s electrified 1970s fusion juggernaut, the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Originating from McLaughlin’s experiences while studying the Indian veena at the University of Connecticut in the 1971, Shakti has proven to be a richly rewarding musical entity, and has continued to perform and record in varying lineups into the 21st century.

2. Sangam
Zakir performed in a number of SFJAZZ "Sacred Space" concerts at Grace Cathedral over the years – first with Joe Henderson, then with Pharoah Sanders and finally with Charles Lloyd. The performance with Lloyd led to creation of Sangam (released on ECM in 2004), a telepathic trio with drummer Eric Harland, and easily one of the most stimulating world-fusion recordings produced in the last 40 years.

3. Karuna Supreme
Hussain's very first concert on the West Coast (after moving to the Bay Area) was with sarodist Ali Akbar Khan and saxophonist John Handy, marking the young tabla master's "first real experience with actually playing with a jazz musician" (interview). The collaboration resulted in Karuna Supreme in the mid-70s, right up there with Shakti as one of the foundational contributions to Indo-jazz fusion.

4. Mickey Hart and Global Drum Project
As the story goes, Zakir Hussain's father met the Grateful Dead while on the road with Ravi Shankar. He recommended his son go live and study with drummer-percussionist Mickey Hart in the Bay Area. Hussain would go on to record on a number of Mickey Hart recordings from the early 70s on, including the Global Drum Project in 2007.

5. Masters of Percussion
Since its inception in the mid-90s Zakir Hussain's enduring Masters of Percussion has scoured India for out-of-the way drumming traditions, looking to spotlight the subcontinent’s rhythmic riches. The project is designed as an extended encounter between the venerable classical traditions of North (Hindustani) and South (Carnatic) India, as well as folk and Western influences.