LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Tabla master Zakir Hussain died yesterday. He shaped modern world music with the Indian hand drum that has a unique sound that dates back hundreds of years. NPR's Ryland Barton reports Hussain's talents united musicians from diverse cultures.
RYLAND BARTON, BYLINE: During Hussain's more than five-decade career, he was revered as a national treasure in India and admired across the world. He formed jazz fusion band Shakti with guitarist John McLaughlin. Here they are during a 2010 Tiny Desk concert.
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BARTON: His father, Alla Rakha, was considered one of the world's greatest tabla performers and frequently accompanied sitar legend Ravi Shankar. In 2015, Hussain told NPR his father trained him in the classical tradition of tabla during middle of the night lessons and expanded his mind with music brought home from world tours.
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ZAKIR HUSSAIN: I was the only kid on the block who was walking down the street with a boom box on my shoulder, playing as loud as I could, "Light My Fire."
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THE DOORS: (Singing) Try to set the night on fire.
BARTON: Moving to the San Francisco Bay area in the '70s, Hussain would go on to work with Western rock stars like George Harrison, Van Morrison and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart. This year, Hussain became the first musician from India to receive three Grammy awards in the same year. His music defied genres, collaborating with jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd and bluegrass masters Edgar Meyer and Bela Fleck.
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BARTON: During that 2015 interview, Hussain said his father taught him to find similarities between rhythmists around the world, no matter the style.
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HUSSAIN: We were all on the same wavelength, the same quest, looking for the perfection which we will never find, but that didn't matter because it's all about the journey, not the goal.
BARTON: In a statement, Hussain's family said his cause of death was idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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