Raga: Bahar; Dhun In Mishra Khamaj

Duets is a collaborative studio album featuring shehnai virtuoso Ustad Bismillah Khan and violinist V. G. Jog. The record released in 1965 under the His Master’s Voice label in a 12\" vinyl format. The album captures a fusion of North Indian classical traditions through instrumental jugalbandi, with Khan’s shehnai and Jog’s violin interpreting shared raga structures.

The track Raga Bahar; Dhun in Mishra Khamaj appears as side B of the vinyl. The composition opens with an alap in Raga Bahar, a spring-season raga associated with the Kafi thaat. The performance transitions into a dhun set to Mishra Khamaj, a semi-classical tal adapted for light-classical improvisation. Khan’s shehnai leads the melodic exposition, while Jog’s violin provides harmonic and rhythmic counterpoint. The recording preserves the live interaction characteristic of their concert collaborations, though studio production techniques of the era applied minimal post-processing.

The album’s liner notes credit no additional accompanying artists, suggesting the duo performed without percussion or tanpura support. The release date aligns with a period of cross-genre experimentation in Indian classical music, though Duets remains one of the few documented studio recordings pairing Khan and Jog. No reissues or digital remasters have been officially confirmed by the original label. The vinyl’s sleeve design follows His Master’s Voice’s standard template for classical releases of the 1960s, featuring a monochrome portrait of the artists with minimal typographic embellishment.

Further details regarding the album’s recording location, session duration, or alternate takes remain undocumented in available sources. The track’s runtime is not specified on the original pressing, but side B of contemporary 12\" classical vinyl records typically accommodated 15–20 minutes of music per side.