Zakir Hussain, Tabla Virtuoso Who Fused Musical Traditions, Dies at 73

In San Francisco, he joined jam sessions with the Grateful Dead and recorded with band members on the 1971 solo album by the Dead’s drummer Mickey Hart, “Rolling Thunder.”

Mr. Hussain studied and taught ethnomusicology at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he earned a Ph.D. He moved to Northern California to teach at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, where he led the Tal Vadya Rhythm Band, a cross-cultural, percussion-centered group.

Mr. Hart joined the group in 1975, and led by him and Mr. Hussain, it was renamed the Diga Rhythm Band. It released a debut album, “Diga,” in 1976, featuring the Dead’s Jerry Garcia as guest guitarist. One of its tracks, “Happiness Is Drumming,” was reworked into the Dead’s song “Fire on the Mountain.”

Mr. Hussain often joined Mr. Hart through the years, on projects including the 1991 album “Planet Drum,” which won the first Grammy Award for world music album. Global Drum Project — a group with Mr. Hussain, Mr. Hart, the Puerto Rican percussionist Giovanni Hidalgo and the Nigerian percussionist Sikiru Adepoju — also won a world-music Grammy, in 2009.

In 1978, Mr. Hussain married Antonia Minnecola, a dancer in the Indian classical style Kathak. She was also his manager. She survives him, along with their daughters, Isabella and Anisa Qureshi; two brothers, Taufiq and Fazal Qureshi; a sister, Khurshid Aulia; and a granddaughter.

Through the years, Mr. Hussain appeared on hundreds of albums, equally at home with Indian classical traditions and fresh multicultural hybrids. He recorded dazzling tabla duets with his father and extended, introspective ragas with leading Indian musicians. In 1991, he started a label, Moment Records, to release his classical and contemporary collaborations. Eight years later, the producer Bill Laswell and Mr. Hussain assembled Tabla Beat Science, a project that merged tabla drumming and electronics, leading to a studio album and a tour.