About A Night at the Taj
A Night at the Taj is a studio album featuring sitarist Ustad Vilayat Khan and surbahar player Ustad Imrat Khan. The recording captures a live-to-tape performance of North Indian classical music, released in 1967 under the label His Master’s Voice.
The album was issued in vinyl format with a single extended track titled Raga Chandani Kedar. The composition adheres to the traditional khayal style of Hindustani classical music, showcasing the artists’ mastery of alaap, jor, and jhala sections followed by a structured gat development. The recording session took place in 1967, though the exact studio location remains undocumented in available sources.
Vilayat Khan employed the gayaki ang (vocal-style) technique on the sitar, a hallmark of his performance approach. Imrat Khan accompanied on the surbahar, a bass sitar variant, providing harmonic depth and rhythmic counterpoint. The album’s title references the Taj Mahal, though no direct connection to the monument’s acoustics or a live concert there is confirmed. The liner notes, where present, typically included brief commentary on the raga’s emotional and technical attributes, consistent with classical Indian album conventions of the era.
As a historical artifact, A Night at the Taj exemplifies the collaborative work of the two brothers, both scions of the Imdadkhani gharana (Ettawa gharana). The release date aligns with a period of growing international interest in Indian classical music, though distribution details outside South Asia are not fully verified. The album’s singular track structure reflects the improvisational and expansive nature of raga performance, with a total runtime exceeding 40 minutes.
No reissues or digital remasters of this recording have been officially documented. The original pressing remains a collector’s item among vinyl enthusiasts of Hindustani classical music. Additional session musicians, if any, are not credited in accessible archives.