Zakir Hussain was a peerless Indian tabla player

SAN FRANCISCO - Zakir Hussain, a peerless Indian tabla player who transcended genres and brought classical Indian music to a global audience, died on Dec 15. He was 73.

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He died of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease, in San Francisco in the United States, where he lived, his family said in a statement.

Considered a national treasure in his native India, Hussain won four Grammy Awards and collaborated with a range of superstar artistes who included French-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma, American jazz master Charles Lloyd, the late Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar and the late George Harrison of English rock band The Beatles.