By Mabel Pais

“From the day you are brought in from the nursing home (hospital in India) where you are born, you really are inducted (into music) You don’t have a choice.”

~Ustad Zakir Hussain~

NEW YORK (TIP): Ustad Zakir Hussain reminisces “From the time I was 2 days old, it was his (father’s) routine every day to sit for an hour or so to singing rhythms in my ear.  So, by the time I was 3, when I could actually reach the tabla and had hands slightly bigger to get on to the tabla.  I already had all this information in my head and this big jumbled confusion which I had really no idea know what to do with.”

“So, I went through a confusing (for many people) being connected to Lord Ganesha, Lord Shiva, Krishna, Saraswati between 3 and 6 a.m.; and then between 7 and 7:45 dealing with the Quran, then from 8 to 8:20 dealing with the church and the hymns and the psalms, and so on.  And then of course, going to school; and then (at home), the tabla.”

“All- the Bible, the Quran, the Gita, the Torah, the Ramayana – all have said ‘Love Thy Neighbor.’  It appeared to be that way in my childhood.”

Ustad Allarakha Qureshi, popularly known as Alla Rakha, Zakir Hussain’s father, teacher and mentor, an internationally renowned top award-winning tabla maestro, specialized in Hindustani Classical music.

Ustad Zakir Hussain is a world-renowned tabla virtuoso, producer, film actor and composer. He’s a two-time Grammy winner and a pioneer of world music.  Among many other awards are the Padma Shree, the Padma Bhushan, The National Fellowship For The Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts.

One of India’s reigning cultural ambassadors, Hussain is known worldwide for his brilliant playing – The Washington Post says that “his virtuosity is barely to be believed” – but his innovative collaborations have also made him a chief architect of the contemporary world music movement.

“It’s the human condition: joy, loneliness, love, companionship, communion, and hope. The things by which we live….. The fundamentals that make us what we are as humans. They cross over gender, race and everything.” 

~Dave Holland~

GRAMMY-winning bassist-composer Dave Holland, enjoying his fifth decade as a jazz superstar, was recently classified as “a master bassist and bandleader, and one of the most sophisticated composers and arrangers in the jazz world” by The Boston Globe.

Holland has never stopped evolving, reinventing his concept and approach with each new project while constantly honing his instantly identifiable voice.  Dave Holland has been at the forefront of jazz in many of its forms since his earliest days.

As a leader and collaborator, Holland continues to tour the world and still serves the music in an educational role in Canada, the UK, the Berklee College of Music, and the New England Conservatory.

Most recently, Holland was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music (UK)—a rare honor as membership is limited to 300 living musicians—and he’s been named a 2017 Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Over the years and through countless musical experiences, Holland defines his purpose as a musician—and he articulates it well: “I’m trying to create music that exists on multiple levels, such as simpler elements along with more complex elements.”

“It’s the human condition: joy, loneliness, love, companionship, communion, and hope. The fundamentals that make us what we are as humans. They cross over gender, race and everything. Cultural orientations may be different, but the fundamental truths people function under are still the same. It’s about their family, their love, their nurturing, their wanting to belong, and their wanting to have hope.”

As part of the CrossCurrents Music Tour that began in late October 2017 in the USA, The New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) presents Zakir Hussain & Dave Holland along with other musicians: superstar Bollywood vocalist and music composer, Shankar Mahadevan; guitarist-composer Sanjay Divecha; pianist Louiz Banks, a standard-bearer of India’s contemporary jazz movement; sax player Chris Potter; and drummer Gino Banks.

CrossCurrents is a one-of-a-kind world music performance that melds the music of India with the energy of jazz, all built on the foundational duo of renowned tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain and acclaimed bassist-composer Dave Holland.

When Hussain and Holland get together to play, they mesh their improvisational genius and musical intuition to pay tribute to pioneering musicians and composers on opposite sides of the world – those artists who first established the longstanding relationship between jazz and India’s classical music.

“When we compose music, we always try to bring some new flavor in it.  It’s always exciting to create something which is not done before.”

~Shankar Mahadevan~

Shankar Mahadevan, superstar Bollywood vocalist and music composer, whose trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is behind hits like ‘Senorita’ and ‘Kajra Re’, says reinvention is the key to their longevity. “We have given many compositions which later became the trend in the industry. When we compose music, we always try to bring some new flavor in it. Sometimes, we re-invent ourselves from our existing compositions and that gives us immense confidence to churn out hit music. It’s always exciting to create something which is not done before,” said Mahadevan.

Whether you love jazz or world music (or both), you won’t want to miss the musical fireworks! Tickets to see Zakir Hussain and Dave Holland on Sunday, November 5, 2017 7:00 PM are available at NJPAC.org or 888.GO. NJPAC (888.466.5722) or by visiting the NJPAC Box Office.

(Mabel Pais is a freelance writer.  She writes on The Arts and Entertainment, Social Issues, Health and Wellness, and Spirituality).