Shivkumar Sharma - The Passing of a Legend & Dear Friend

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma
Born January 13, 1938 in Jammu India / Died May 10, 2022 in Mumbai India

Those close to Pandit Shivkumar Sharma called him Shivji. There is so much to say about this legendary musician which I feel is so important to know for anyone interested in the Classical Music of India. However, in this blog, I would like to simply share my experience of the man, the teacher and the dear friend Shivji was for me. I am aware of his deep personal importance to so many people, namely his wonderful wife Minorama, and his sons Rahul and Rohit. And so many of his students, several of whom I also am close with such as Takahiro Arai and Setsuo Miyashita (Jimmi) and so many more around the world. Yet the one person who was nearest to the musical heart of Shivji was the same person who introduced me to him, my Guru-ji Ustad Zakir Hussain.

Over the last 25 years, I had been Zakir-ji’s tour manager doing everything from advancing, travel, stage, sound (before Mujeeb), instrument tuning & repair etc… It began around the first Masters of Percussion tour in honor of his father’s (Ustad Alla Rakha) 75th Birthday. So for several years, we did the Masters of Percussion tours with a different lineup each tour on alternate years with concerts featuring great artists such as Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Sultan Khan, L. Shankar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Ustad Ashish Khan & Pandit Rajeev Taranath. And then in 1999, the alternate year tour became a duet with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. So we did 8 tours until 2013 when Shivji decided it was time to not travel so much and do more work & rest in India. Each one of those tours contained sometimes up to 20 different cities around North America. Traveling between those cities, of course, required major planning each and every time we booked the tour, and soon enough we discovered that renting a tour bus was our favorite way to travel. It was a big bus with 12 sleeping bunks, which was a lot of bus for 3 guys, but the extra room allowed us to really get some rest and calm, between the hectic schedule surrounding the concerts.

We had so many adventures on the road and on the stage. For the first few tours I was always playing tambura for them, and I have to say, some of the deepest moments of music & magic happened in that small circle of energy on the riser. Being within reach of both Shivji and Zakirji playing music together, night after night, truly shifted and harmonized the very cells in my body. Some of the stories from those adventures, I’ll touch on here, but more fully share in the book I am writing. But for now, let’s just say it was a tremendous blessing in my life. I do want to say that I owe everything the Zakirji. It is because of him, that I was in the position to experience so many great musicians, and he trusted me to take care of them. I, of course have a lifetime of stories and blessings to share with you about my years with Zakirji, but again, we’ll save those stories for another time.

One thing that struck me, right from 1999 when we first began these tours, was that Zakirji and Shivji had a marvelous respect for one another. And yet, along with that respect, there was a childlike playfulness and a sense of fun that they would have with each other. And oh my, did that ever show up in the music on stage.

On the tour bus - for those who have never been on a nice one, they are like a 5 star hotel room on wheels

One of the special things that both Shivji and I really enjoyed, was a good ghost story. And because of that appreciation, we both had collected a long list of really interesting ones over the years. So, while on the road, we would have all 3 meals together everyday. Most of those were just him and I, since my Guru Zakirji would have meetings or interviews, and even other concerts filling in the off days during the tour. He is a miracle of nature indeed.

So the pattern usually was, that we would talk about meditation and Nada Yoga during breakfast and lunch, and then, during a candle lite dinner, it was ghost stories. He even let me record him telling some of those special ones. The photo below is from Tucson AZ where we were deep into some great stories about ghosts (in India called Jinn) who haunted musicians who played certain Raags.

Another aspect of Shivji that I very quickly discovered was that he was a deeply spiritual man. He was intimately connected to the Saint, Sri Satya Sai Baba, and often talked about his many experiences of miracles in his presence. For me, over the years, asking him questions about meditation and the divine, lead to a deep study of Nada Yoga which in short, is the realization that all things are made of vibration and relate to one another using laws very much like that of music. For me, he became my main teacher of this fundamental science and I felt that many many people really had no idea of the vast depth of his spiritual passion and knowledge. But I suppose the only reason it was revealed to me, was because of all the many hours we spent together on these tours, along with my own interest in the topic from my childhood.

It was quite often that, on the tour bus I would walk out from a nights sleep or a nap to find Shivji sitting meditating by himself in the front room.

On a more mundane note, here is a story of highway craziness. I remember one time on our way to New Orleans, we were rolling down the highway. Shivji, who often liked sitting in the passengers seat next to the driver, looking out the great front windows, was in that captains seat, and I was standing next to him. We were just watching the traffic ahead of us as we were going over a huge overpass, up above the tops of the forest below. When suddenly a full size 18 wheeler lost control several cars ahead of us and swerved one way, and then sharply back the other way, ramming all the way through the concrete side wall, tipped on its side and the cab slipped over the edge, followed by the entire trailer which levered over like a huge dark Whale breaching out of the sea, standing on end and then disappearing over the edge. Shivji and I were stunned, and in a quiet moment just looked at each other - just to check and make sure we both had seen what we thought we saw… anyway, events like that were thankfully unusual, but traveling so much on the highways, one does see some nutty things. In the photo below, Shivji is sitting in the very seat, and actually might have been taken just before that happened.

There were times when we would wake up and meet in the hallway of some random hotel and look strangely at one another with a half smile and ask, “Do you know where we are? What city are we in???” And only when we get to breakfast did we figure out we were in …

And as a special treat, on occasion, when Zakirji was running late to a sound check because of an interview or something, I would actually get to sit with him on stage and play for half an hour - Oh My God - other than with my Guru Zakirji, I have never felt the particular feeling of playing with someone who completely could see right through me, knew what I was playing and was customizing every pulse to accommodate my strengths and weaknesses. All it took for me to feel like I have reached the highest high, was to have him shoot me over one of those super cute and playful Shivji smiles while accompanying him… and the fact that there were zero people in the audience, had no bearing on its importance.

I’ll save more detailed stories for my future writing, but I’ll share a few other photos from the road, some of which include visits with the great sarode Maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and guitar legend John Mclaughlin. And a fun meeting with my dear friend and Kirtan maestro Krishna Das in NYC. But the photo below that brings back a particularly warm memory is the black and white one of Shivji looking out the window of a hotel, I don’t know where and it doesn’t matter. Because it reminds me of his contemplative nature. It reminds me of sitting with him in complete silence, yet in total comfort and kindness. It reminds me of being around someone who, by their very presence, inspires me to want to reach within myself and seek that great expanse.

I have to say, just spending the time now writing, sitting and remembering some of our times together brings up both tears of caring, as well as the feeling of a joy, brighter than any single Sun. The more I remember the little details, the more I feel him with me now. I think it is important for people to know that a man like this did live amongst us. And like the other giants, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Ustad Sultan Khan, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Alla Rakha, just to name a few, these legends were also flesh and blood, down to earth people. We all get to swim in the blessings of their music on the albums they left for us, but I love to think of what kind of people they were - on the bus, chatting after a nice lunch, sleeping at night next to their instrument that they take out and place on bed next to them, finding time to call home and finding small joys in the moment. As with our own loved ones, it is often the little details that bring their memory up strongest. I remember Shivji always asking me to bring him some plain toast, a glass of water and a banana - every night! And like bringing Zakirji a coffee latte as a ritual, it didn’t take long for me to travel with a supply of fresh bananas, ready to deliver to him each night, before he asked. And do you know why? To simply, maybe, possibly have a chance of receiving just one more of those little, cute, playful Shivji smiles.

I miss him dearly, and am at the same time, overjoyed to have known him. What a wonderful wonderful man, and what a wonderful world his music has created, and will always create.

Ty