Alap, Jod, and Jhala: How a Sitar Performance Actually Unfolds

Alap, Jod, and Jhala: How a Sitar Performance Actually Unfolds

Put on a recording of a sitar recital and, for the first several minutes, you may not hear anything you'd recognize as rhythm at all — no tabla, no steady pulse, just a single line of melody unfolding slowly, note by note, with long pauses between phrases.