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Charles Lloyd pays homage to his dear friend and longtime collaborator Zakir Hussain with Sangam & Friends, an extraordinary document of the deep musical affinity between the legendary saxophonist/flutist and master tablaist along with their Sangam trio mate drummer Eric Harland.

The album is built around studio recordings made in Mumbai in 2009 for an album that was begun but never completed featuring an expanded ensemble with Carnatic singer Vijay Prakash, Rakesh Chaurasia on bansuri, Sabir Khan on sarangi, Ranjit Barot on keyboard, and Niladri Kumar on sitar. — (via Label)

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Charles Lloyd and Zakir Hussain played together the very first time they met. Just weeks after 9/11, they played a memorial for Lloyd's longtime collaborator Billy Higgins at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral. Together with drummer Eric Harland, they formed Sangam, and in 2004 recorded a live performance at the Lobero Theater released as Sangam in 2006 on ECM.

 In 2009 they played Hussain's annual Abbaji concert in honor of his father, percussion master Alla Rakha. The trio was joined on-stage by Rakesh Chaurasia on bansuri; Carnatic singer Vijay Prakash; Sabir Khan on bowed sarangi; Ranjit Barot on keyboard; and Niladri Kumar on sitar and electric sitar - to build on the ideas that emerged during the concert. Those recordings remained incomplete at the time of Hussain's death in December 2024. Lloyd, wishing to pay homage to his friend, collaborated with producer and spouse Dorothy Darr to assemble them alongside unissued Sangam studio and live recordings on Sangam & Friends.

Opener "Clear the Dust" finds Lloyd, Khan, and Prakash offering a brief improvised invocation that gives way to the saxophonist's glorious 11-minute "The Blessing." His horn, Harland's cymbals, and the bansuri undergird Prakash's classical singing in the intro. Soon sitar and sarangi join the conversation. When the melody emerges, Hussain enters and constructs a labyrinthine rhythmic dialogue with Harland. The traditional "Jai Ganga" is performed by Sangam. It's introduced by Lloyd's solo tenor before Hussain's roiling tabla and Harland's skittering kit work and snare/hi-hat breaks create a conversation. Lloyd's flute replaces the sax for a time, going head to head with the frenetic yet hypnotic tablas as Harland surrounds them with nearly funky interplay; Lloyd brings back the tenor to close.

The trio also played on "Tagore," an unissued selection from the 2006 Lobero concert. Lloyd's flute playing is at its most lyrical here as the drummers dialogue with one another while accenting his lines. The original trio joins forces on "Bharati’s Dance, Tempo Divine." The eight-minute track finds the space where Eastern and Western traditions dissolve and emerge as something wholly other, as blues, raga, and modal jazz entwine in a new sound.

Barot's keyboard provides an opening drone for "Eternal Dreamer." Lloyd's horn, Chaurasia's bansuri flute, and Khan's bowed sarangi join as Barot slowly unfolds a chord progression. Tenor sax, vocals, bansuri, tabla, and sarangi offer a slowly unfolding improvisation that is soon joined by a bluesy electric sitar. It's meditative throughout, even when Lloyd ratchets the intensity; it is one of the set's finest moments.

Closer "Sam on the Ganges" finds the septet revisiting and reimagining the saxophonist's classic "Sombrero Sam." Here, post-bop, Carnatic tradition, syncopation, and group improv commingle and collide, as tabla, electric sitar, sarangi, bansuri, and tenor find space to expand inside the deep blues melody. 

Sangam & Friends is not only a fitting tribute to Hussain, it's a startling, intimate conversation between traditions and a welcome addition to Sangam's catalog. — (via AllMusic)
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The pairing of classical Indian musicians with jazz reeds players has only a few precedents beyond Charles Lloyd. They include Bud Shank on the Ravi Shankar album Impressions (1961), Steve Lacey with Subroto Roy Chowdhury on Explorations (1987), and – most pertinently for a comparison with Sangam – Jan Garbarek with Zakir Hussain himself on Hussain’s magnificent Making Music (1987), which also featured Hariprasad Chaurasia on bansuri (Indian bamboo flute) and John McLauglin on acoustic guitar. The pairing of traditional tabla players with jazz drummers is even rarer, one notable instance being Rich à la Rakha (1968), featuring Buddy Rich with tabla master Ustad Alla Rakha (Zakir Hussain’s father), with Ravi Shankar on sitar, and – a jazz flautist again! – Paul Horn.

The combination of reeds, tablas and western drums on this album is stunning, the trio pieces perfect companions to the earlier Sangam recording. Charles Lloyd has incorporated diverse global cultures into his music since the late 1950s, way before crossover “world music” acquired the label, and that comfort and familiarity are there in every note he plays; and Harland is the most supple of drummers – his duets with Hussain create polyrhythms of such intricacy that I could happily listen to a whole album’s worth. — (via UK Jazz)

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Label: Blue Note
Format: Vinyl, LP
Released: 2026
Genre: Jazz, Folk, World, & Country
Style: Contemporary Jazz, Avant-garde Jazz

File under: Blue Note
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