Raga : Darbari - Ek Taal & Teen Taal

Late Night Ragas is a studio album of Indian classical music released in 1999 under the RPG label. The recording features a collaborative performance by violinist N. Rajam, shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, sarod player Amjad Ali Khan and santoor exponent Pt. Shivkumar Sharma. The album adopts a jugalbandi format, blending instrumental traditions from the Hindustani classical repertoire.

The sole track, titled Raga Darbari, spans approximately 75–100 minutes and explores the raga in two rhythmic cycles: Ek Taal (12 beats) and Teen Taal (16 beats). The composition emphasizes the raga’s characteristic komal ni (flattened seventh) and shuddha ma (natural fourth), aligned with its traditional late-night (ratri raga) performance context. The recording captures extended alaap sections followed by layered improvisations, with each artist contributing distinct phrasing and technical approaches to the raga’s development.

The album was issued on compact disc, with production credits attributed to RPG’s classical music division. No additional session musicians or accompanying artists are documented in available sources. The release date is confirmed as 1999, though specific recording locations or engineers remain unverified. The track sequence and timing suggest a live-to-tape recording style, preserving the spontaneity of the performance while adhering to studio production standards of the era.

Notable for its assembly of four eminent instrumentalists, Late Night Ragas exemplifies the jugalbandi tradition within the dhrupad-ang and khayal-ang frameworks. The album’s reception and commercial performance are not widely documented, but it holds significance as a rare full-length collaboration among artists representing different gharanas and instrumental lineages. Further details on alternate editions, reissues or liner notes content are not publicly accessible.