Tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, 73, handed away in a U.S. hospital resulting from coronary heart points. Hussain, also called Ustaad, had a outstanding profession spanning six many years. His band Shakti gained a Grammy earlier this 12 months. Hussain has additionally recieved 4 different Grammy Awards earlier in his profession.
Hussain is one in all India’s most celebrated classical musicians. He obtained the Padma Shri in 1988, the Padma Bhushan in 2002, and the Padma Vibhushan in 2023. Born on March 9, 1951, he’s additionally the son of legendary tabla grasp Ustad Alla Rakha.
The musician labored with a number of famend worldwide and Indian artists. Nonetheless, his 1973 musical challenge with English guitarist John McLaughlin, violinist L Shankar, and percussionist TH ‘Vikku’ Vinayakram introduced collectively Indian classical and components of jazz in a fusion hitherto unknown. Moreover, his collaborations with western artists comparable to Yo-Yo Ma, Charles Lloyd, Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Mickey Hart, and George Harrison introduced Indian classical music to a global viewers.
Wah Ustad Wah!
Nonetheless, Ustad turned a family identify in 1988 because the face of the Taj Mahal Tea model. The TV business now considered a traditional, confirmed Hussain immersed in his tabla riyaaz, in opposition to the Taj Mahal solely to later sip on the tea as a voiceover praises his craft and says, “Wah ustad, wah!” to which the maestro responds “Arre huzoor, wah Taj boliye!”
The advert stays etched in folks’s recollections in any case these years. The business turned a cultural phenomenon, embedding itself within the collective reminiscence of viewers and establishing Hussain as a family identify in addition to the model ambassador for the Taj Mahal Tea.
The model later launched a number of variations of the ‘Wah Taj’ marketing campaign that includes personalities like Aditya Kalyanpur and Alisha Chinai.
Written with the View : afaqs