Rolling on the Sea

Rolling on the Sea is a collaborative track from the 1995 album Mumtaz Mahal. The composition features Narasimhan Ravikiran on chitravina, Taj Mahal on vocals and guitar, and Vishwa Mohan Bhatt on mohan veena. The piece spans 5 minutes and 1 second and appears as the third track on the release.

The album Mumtaz Mahal emerged from a fusion of Indian classical music and blues traditions. Water Lily Acoustics produced and distributed the recording in CD format. The project marked a cross-cultural exchange, with Ravikiran contributing Carnatic instrumental techniques, Bhatt integrating Hindustani slide guitar adaptations, and Taj Mahal blending Delta blues influences with raga-inspired vocal phrasing.

The title Mumtaz Mahal references the 17th-century Mughal empress and wife of Shah Jahan, though the album’s thematic or narrative connections to her remain undocumented in available sources. The recording sessions occurred in an unspecified location, with engineering and production details unattributed in public records. Rolling on the Sea exemplifies the album’s hybrid approach, combining improvisational structures from both Indian classical and African-American musical frameworks.

Critics noted the track’s use of tala-based rhythms alongside pentatonic blues scales, though no formal analyses or sheet music transcriptions exist in published archives. The album received distribution primarily in North America and Europe, with later reissues or digital releases not confirmed in accessible catalogs. The original 1995 CD pressing remains the sole documented format for this recording.