Raga Patdip, Pahdi Dhun In Dipchandi and Keherva Tal

by John Storm Roberts Together with tabla-player Ustad Zakir Hussain, India's best-known flutist expands at length on the popular night melody, "Raag Chandrakauns," following it with a briefer pastoral dhun, "Dadra Dhun." The 90-minute performance of "Chandrakauns," far more than earlier recordings, reveals the enrichment of Chaurasia's style of the heterogeneous flute traditions he has studied, a model of integration without pastiche. As the performance nears its climax, the interplay between Chaurasia and Zakir Hussain becomes particularly powerful.