Zakir Hussain and the Masters of Percussion

Because of the nearly infinite number of tones and sliding pitches that can be coaxed from the tabla—the paired hand drum preeminent among North Indian classical percussion instruments—it’s earned a rep as one of the trickiest drums on earth to master. Zakir Hussain, the world’s undisputed raja of its complex rhythms, presumably has just ten fingers on his hands—but when he rains down bol beats during solo tangents, you’d swear he’s channeling a multiarmed Hindu deity.

The tabla usually sticks to the accompanying talas, the complex rhythmic cycles in ragas. But in Hussain’s beat-happy Masters of Percussion concerts—which, since 1996, have brought together masters of various Indian and Central Asian percussion traditions—the stringed instruments (sitar, sarod, sarangi) have to share the melodic spotlight, or surrender it altogether. If anyone’s earned the right to break with tradition it’s Hussain, a seminal pioneer of East-West world music collabs who rode shotgun to protean guitarist John McLaughlin in ’70s Indo-jazz fusion group Shakti, and alongside another dream team of world beaters on Mickey Hart’s 1991 Planet Drum album.

For those who equate such warm-and-fuzzy fusion forays with elevated elevator music, Hussain’s Symphony Center extravaganza will provide a more authentically rooted panacea. His fellow percussionists this time out include his brother, chameleonic percussionist Taufiq Qureshi; Abbos Kosimov on doyra (an Uzbek frame-drum and tambourine hybrid); Ram Kishan on nagada (ancient Indian kettle drum); and Vijay Chauhan on dholki (a long, barrel-shaped drum ubiquitous on Bollywood soundtracks). They’ll be joined by sitarist Niladri Kumar and Dilshad Khan on sarangi (bowed Indian fiddle), as well as the Meitei Pung Cholom Performing Troupe, which performs Manipuri, an ancient style of sacred dance incorporating—drum roll, please—percussion instruments into its graceful patterns.