Tabla player Ustad Fazal Qureshi. Photo: Supplied
It's still feels a bit raw for Ustad Fazal Qureshi, less than a year after his brother's death.
Ustad Zakir Hussain was regarded as one of the best players of the classical Indian percussion instrument, the tabla.
His death last December robbed the world of a musician whose influence went way beyond the Indian classical community.
This weekend, Fazal Qureshi will be in New Zealand to perform a concert in his brother's honour at the Mangere Arts Centre in Auckland.
It'll be just over a year since the late maestro performed in New Zealand himself.
Fazal Qureshi spoke to RNZ's Bryan Crump ahead of the concert. He recalled growing up in the Qureshi household in India, where his father and two of his siblings were tabla players.
It was hard for his mother sometimes, Fazal says, to be surrounded by so much drumming.
One of the boys, Munawar, died young, but the surviving three all became professional musicians, although brother Taufiq branched out into western style percussion.
Joining Fazal Quareshi at the Mangere Arts Centre on Saturday evening will be fellow Indian and classical singer, Ustad Dilshad Khan.
There will also be a Kiwi-based contingent represented by singer Daljeet Kaur and tabla player Manjit Singh along with Takadimi, an Indo-jazz fusion band.
Zakir Hussain, being remembered in Aotearoa this weekend. Photo: Supplied/Paul Joseph
