Zakir Hussain

Zakir Hussain Qureshi 9 March 1951 15 December 2024 was an Indian tabla player composer arranger percussionist music producer and film actor The eldest son of esteemed tabla player Alla Rakha Zakir Hussain was widely regarded as the greatest tabla player of his generation and one of its finest percussionists He produced music across multiple genres and contributed to popularizing Indian classical music to a global audience Often prefixed by the honorific title of Ustad Hussain was awarded the United States National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship the highest award given to traditional artists and musicians He was also given the Government of Indias Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1990 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship Ratna Sadsya in 2018 Hussain received seven Grammy Award nominations winning four times including three in 2024 He was described as the most recognizable exponent of the tabla by The Guardian The New York Times marveled that the blur of his fingers rivals the beat of a hummingbirds wings Description above from the Wikipedia article Zakir Hussain licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia