Charles Lloyd had a long and fruitful collaboration with the tabla master Zakir Hussain going back decades. In 2009, Zakir brought Charles to India to be part of his annual 'Abbaji' concert in honour of his father, Alla Rakha. In the publicity notes supplied, Lloyd's manager/partner Dorothy Darr says, "In the days following the musical offering to Alla Rakha we went to Nirvana Studio to delve deeper into the waterfalls and eddies that had been stirred up." Since Hussain is not mentioned in the personnel I have been given, do we assume that having invited Lloyd to play in homage to Hussain's father, Zakir was not part of the ensemble? And having said "in the days following the musical offering," the publicist then adds, "Sangam & Friends was made over that one day in February 2009." That Hussain did play is given credence by Dorothy's notes: "The ensemble intended to convene again in the future to complete the album, but the Universe had other plans," meaning the death of Hussain. So did Hussain play with this ensemble in 2009 and subsequently prevented from doing so by his untimely death? Such are the perils of reviewing from cut and pasted publicity notes and a sound link. In any event, the track 'Jai Ganga' features Lloyd, Hussain and Harland which has been taken "from the Sangam archives." It is interesting that both Lloyd and in the final Shakti albums by McLaughlin, both make use of Indian Carnatic singers, in Lloyd's case here, Vijay Prakash. Lloyd's playing is both together with the ensemble and apart from it, apart in the sense his playing assumes a profound spirituality that is both moving and haunting and together because his playing gives the music its reason to exist. It is another fascinating musical episode that is a valuable addition to Charles Lloyd's legacy.