About Todi, Ahir Lalit, Panchamkauns (Seattle 1981)
Todi, Ahir Lalit, Panchamkauns (Seattle 1981) is a live studio album of Dhrupad vocal music performed by Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar. The recording captures a 1981 concert held in Seattle, Washington, and features three extended raga expositions in the Dhrupad tradition. The album was officially released in 1998 under the Raga Records label in CD format.
Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar presents three ragas on the album: Todi, Ahir Lalit, and Panchamkauns. Each track showcases the artist’s mastery of the Dagarbani style, characterized by deep meditative exploration, sustained notes, and intricate melodic development. The performance adheres to the alap-jor-jhala structure typical of Dhrupad, with Dagar accompanied by tanpura drone.
The album contains three tracks corresponding to the three ragas. The recording preserves the acoustic ambiance of the 1981 concert, with minimal post-production intervention. Raga Records issued the release in 1998 as part of its series documenting classical Indian music performances. The liner notes or additional session details remain undocumented in available sources.
Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar (1929–1990) belonged to the 19th generation of the Dagar family, a lineage central to the Dhrupad tradition. His renditions on this album reflect the family’s emphasis on vocal purity and rhythmic precision. The Seattle concert represents one of his international performances during the late 20th century, though the exact venue and accompanying artists for this recording are not specified in public records.
The 1998 CD release marked the first official publication of this concert material. Later reissues or digital distributions of the album are not confirmed in accessible archives. The recording stands as a documented example of Dagar’s late-career work and the global dissemination of Dhrupad in the 1980s.