Raga Jog Kauns (Sughar Bar Payo, Vilambit Teentala; Pir Parayi, Drut Teentala)

Raga Jog Kauns is a khayal performance recorded by Hindustani classical vocalist Ustad Rashid Khan for the 1991 compilation album Maestro’s Choice: Series Three: Vocal. The track appears as the second composition on the release, issued by Music Today in CD format. The performance spans 29 minutes and 25 seconds, structured in two sections: a vilambit (slow-tempo) exposition in Teentala set to the bandish Sughar Bar Payo, followed by a drut (fast-tempo) development in the same tala with the bandish Pir Parayi.

The album belongs to the Maestro’s Choice series, a curated collection of performances by prominent Indian classical artists. The label and release date confirm its position in the early 1990s wave of commercially distributed classical recordings in India. No additional session details, accompanying artists, or recording location are documented in available sources. The track exemplifies Khan’s interpretation of Raga Jog Kauns, a shaadava-sampoorna raga derived from the Kafi thaat, though specific stylistic or improvisational choices remain unrecorded beyond the track metadata.

The CD format of Maestro’s Choice: Series Three: Vocal aligned with the period’s shift toward digital distribution of classical music, targeting both connoisseurs and general audiences. The album’s title suggests a selection process by the featured artists or producers, though criteria for inclusion are not publicly specified. Rashid Khan’s contribution to the series reflects his standing as a representative of the Rampur-Sahaswan gharana, though the recording predates his wider international recognition in later decades.