About Hum Kalaam - Face To Face
Hum Kalaam – Face To Face is a collaborative studio album by Indian classical musicians Ustad Sultan Khan and Kamal Sabri. The album released in 2007 under the Music Today label in CD format. It features a live-in-studio interaction between the two artists, showcasing their improvisational dialogue within the framework of North Indian classical music.
The recording captures a single session with two tracks. The first composition, Raga Maru Bihag, presents an alap-jor-jhala progression followed by a structured gat in vilambit and drut layas. Sultan Khan performs on the sarangi, while Kamal Sabri accompanies on the santoor. The second track, Bhajan (Mharo Pranam), adopts a devotional form with lyrics rendered in a semi-classical style. The instrumentation remains consistent, with the sarangi and santoor maintaining a call-and-response dynamic.
The album title Hum Kalaam (transl. \"Our Conversation\") reflects the spontaneous exchange between the artists. Music Today marketed the release as part of its series promoting instrumental jugalbandis (duets) within the Hindustani tradition. The liner notes credit Ashit Desai for sound engineering, though no producer or session details are publicly documented beyond the 2007 release date.
Critical reception at the time noted the contrast between Sultan Khan’s vocal-like sarangi phrasing and Sabri’s percussive santoor technique. The album’s brevity—limited to two extended tracks—emphasizes depth over quantity, a common approach in classical recordings of the period. No commercial charts or sales figures are available for this release.
Context beyond the tracklist and primary credits remains incomplete. The album does not include additional session musicians, and no live performances or reissues have been confirmed as of this entry’s last update.