Ustad Sabri Khan - Raga Darbari / Raga Multani (1991)

Two sublime, masterful ragas today from Ustad Sabri Khan (1927-2015).  Descended from a long line of distinguished musicians, Sabri Khan played the sarangi, an Indian stringed instrument with three melodic gut strings and 35 sympathetic resonant steel strings.

Said to be the instrument that most closely resembles the human voice, even more so than the cello, the sarangi is backed on this recording by tabla (played by Khan's son Ghulam Sarwar Sabri) and tanpura drone from Louise Günel.  The first raga is the 48-minute Darbari, meant to be a slow, sombre nightime raga, and the epic exploratory Alap section gives it its full emotional weight.  This is complemented well by the afternoon raga Multani, where the tablas are more strongly featured.  Beautiful meditative music, and highly recommended.

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